Time Unravels
by Wednesday1990
Summary: Kakashi and his team: Tenzo, Naruto, Sakura, Sai, and Sasuke, are on a mission traveling through Grass country. The six get sent to the past and meet Team Minato. What'll they do? No Pairings. Time travel.
1. Prologue

Kakashi stood on a lone boulder in the middle of a grassy field, one hand on his hip and another fingering the strap of his pack as he watched the horizon. He'd noticed a few hours ago that there was a small, dark cloud speeding toward him and his team. It wasn't moving at the same pace as the other clouds around it. He narrowed his eyes and looked back. A few feet away from him, Tenzo was watching as well. About twenty feet away, closer to the tree line, Naruto was getting his head beat in by Sakura. Sasuke and Sai were looking on with varying degrees of indifference from the sidelines.

"Kakashi," Tenzo whispered as he walked up behind Kakashi and climbed onto his boulder. "That doesn't look like a storm cloud. What are you thinking?"

Kakashi paused for a moment.

"I don't think there's anything we can really do about it. It might be harmless or it might not be, but we are in foreign territory so we'll have to be wary. I think the best thing to do would be to get out of its way."

Tenzo nodded curtly and looked back at the rest of their team and said, "Let's find some shelter for the night then and wait it out."

Kakashi tilted his head back to look at the cloud again, and he raised a hand to shield his eyes from a sun beam that had broken its way out from beneath the heavy cloud cover. There was another long moment and then he nodded at Tenzo.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Let's get out of this field at least and head for the forest. If there's lightning I wouldn't want to be the tallest thing around."

"Yes, sir."

Tenzo hopped off the rock and headed towards the forest. When he paused in front of the rest of their group and Kakashi didn't need to hear them to know what they were saying. Tenzo wouldn't tell them their suspicions, and Naruto and Sakura turned to look at him with confusion. They followed Tenzo without a fight though; knowing better then to question the two of them. Sai didn't say anything, following behind Sakura and Naruto, never for a moment thinking to question Tenzo. Sasuke, on the other hand, gave Kakashi and then Tenzo a pointed glare, wanting to know why they had suddenly stopped and were heading for shelter. It wasn't until Kakashi had casually tilted his head toward the sky behind him that Sasuke reluctantly turned and followed the rest of the group.

It had taken them a while to reintegrate Sasuke into society, but fortunately they'd managed to earn his trust again and he'd managed to earn theirs. It had taken longer for the relationship between the village and Sasuke, but patience and a year of good behavior on Sasuke's part had paid off. Naruto and Sakura's powerful influence on the majority of their village had made a significant contribution as well.

Kakashi watched them carefully as they move towards a safer location and then he glanced back towards the encroaching cloud. He closed his eye and hoped it was nothing. They were only on a B-ranked mission, nothing too serious. However, Kakashi couldn't shake the strange feeling he had as he stood in the grassy field.

This was the place where he'd led his first mission, where he'd made his first best friend, where he'd learned all the morals he followed today, where he'd perfected his one original technique, where he'd lost his first best friend, and, of course, where he'd had received his Sharingan eye. It hadn't changed much despite the war.

"Oi! Kakashi! What? Are you going deaf? Get over here!"

Kakashi looked away from the cloud and saw Naruto waving him over to them, a scowl on his face. Sasuke was standing there too, looking just as cross. He smiled and waved as he headed towards them.

He hoped this was nothing.


	2. Strange Occurrences

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing. **_

_**Note: Just pretend that all the wacky shit that's happening in the manga right now is a bad dream. Sasuke magically appeared back home and they all decided being on the same team would be fun, mkay? **_

_**** Semi-important: This story is currently being edited one chapter at a time. I've put this off for a while since I didn't realize how bad my writing really was about three years ago. If you are going to stop reading this story because you get your panties in a bunch about proper story format, prepare to be horrified if you read unedited chapters. That is all.**_

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There was blood. Lots of it. Very red and very sticky. Too much of it was on the person that was supposed to be smiling like an idiot, or at least scowling at him and calling him a stone cold bastard with a stick shoved up his ass. But there he was. Dying and all because of him. Dying, dying, ...dead.

Kakashi woke up to the sound of thunder and looked up from where he was laying down next to a large treetrunk. Everyone around him was sleeping and the rain was falling down heavily around them. Their team was currently under a huge mushroom sticking out from the tree that they were all sleeping under.

Kakashi jumped when his periferal vision caught a flash of light that lit up the surrounding area which was followed by a loud clap of thunder. He was glad that they had found a dry place to camp until the storm passed. The day before had been a long one and he was hoping that the storm would just pass them by and bring anything troubling with it. However, he had a funny feeling that this would not be the case.

Another flash lit up the area and Kakashi caught a glimpse of another kind of light coming from behind the trees that were in front of them. He blinked and slowly sat up to try and get better look. Unfortunately, the rain obscured his vision and all he could make out were the shapes of leaves, trees, other vegetation in the forest.

Kakashi sighed and leaned against their tree. It was probably just his memories of the place that was making him so jumpy plus the lateness of the hour. Yeah, that was probably it. He closed his eyes and memories of_ that _time passed through his mind's eye causing him to snap his eyes back open.

Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to go back to sleep at the moment. Kakashi tried to rub away the oncoming headache mainly caused from lack of good sleep and worry. Although the worry was entirely irrational.

After another roll of thunder had sounded, Kakashi could swear he had heard another noise in the wake of it. It was faint and between the sound of the rain, wind, and thunder he could barely hear it. It was like a faint buzzing, soft, almost like electricity or insects. Kakashi looked towards the spot in front of him where he thought he had seen something out of the ordinary and waited for another flash of lightening to come.

Another flash and Kakashi even leaned fowards to see what the hell was going on. 'There!' he thought. There was some movement and a slight glow visible from the spaces between the trees and he was almost startled by the way the sound got a little louder when it came to his attention. Kakashi marked the spot mentally and went to Tenzo to wake him up.

*shake*

"Tenzo," Kakashi whispered.

*groan*

"Tenzo!"

*shake, shake, shake*

"Wha...? Sen...pai?"

Kakashi snorted at the man who was blinking up at him stupidly with the most ridiculous bed hair.

"Yeah genius, it's me. I saw something out of place so I'm going to check it out. I need you to stay up in case something happens."

Tenzo blinked some more trying to get his former taicho into focus.

"What you mean 'out of place'? I thought it was just a storm. I mean obviously it's just a storm right?"

Kakashi sighed.

"Yeah I thought that too for a bit, but do you hear that noise?"

Tenzo focused his hearing for a moment, straining to hear a noise that was out of place with the sound of rain and storm.

His eyes widened a bit and he asked, "What is that?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm going to check it out, but I need you stay up just in case something happens so that you come after me if something goes wrong."

Tenzo stared at him for a bit.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to go look? And by yourself?"

"Hmm...well it's steadily been getting louder and it's pretty close to our location. I don't want to just dismiss it as nothing, but I also don't want to get everyone worked up about it. Mainly Sakura and Naruto."

Tenzo gave a tired sigh and rubbed at his eyes.

"Yeah. You're right. Okay I'll look out."

Kakashi eye smiled at him and got up.

After stretching some of the sleep from his joints he walked around everyone else and stared at the spot he was going to be checking out. He looked back and saw Tenzo scowling at him. Kakashi eye smiled again and gave him a thumbs up. Tenzo rolled his eyes and gestured for him to hurry the hell up. Kakashi chuckled and walked out into the storm. The water hit him hard and the wind only made it all the more unpleasant. Kakashi sighed and made his way towards the supposed danger.

'Today is just not my day,' Kakashi thought.

As he walked through the trees the buzzing grew louder and it now sounded more like the kind of buzzing that electricity would make. This piqued Kakashi's interest and he began walking faster towards the noise. The faint light that was now visible and for the first time Kakashi realized that the glow was a strange color. Almost like a strange mixture of many colors rather than a pure white. Kakashi walked around the last tree and found the source of strange glow.

"What the hell?" Kakashi muttered as he scratched the back of his head looking at this floating mass of lightening. Or at least it looked like some sort of lightening-like substance.

Kakashi pushed up his headband to look at it with his sharingan. It seemed like there was a dense amount of chakra in the middle of it. But what was the purpose of it all? There was no one else arounf and it seemed unlikely that someone would cast such a gaudy jutsu and just leave it here.

Suddenly Kakashi realized that he felt sort of attracted to it in a way. Almost as if it was calling him to it. He looked at it again and suddenly noticed that he had begun walking towards it.

Kakashi realized what he was doing and stopped abruptly. He looked at the ground in an attempt to refocus his thoughts and to try to push away that strange compulsion to run towards it.

For some reason memories began flooding his head again and that awful day began running through his head like some sort of twisted slide show. He looked back and noticed that the mass was glowing brighter than ever and almost seemed to be pulsating. The noise had become almost unbearably loud and Kakashi's one visible eye widened at the sight. He found himself moving towards it again and before he could realize what he was doing, it was too late.

Kakashi screamed as blinding pain filled his senses and an entire spectrum of colors passed before his eyes. He felt as if he was being ripped apart again and agiain and that there was nothing he could do to stop the pain. After what seemed like an eternity of torture, Kakashi welcomed the comforting darkness and happily passed out.

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_**As I've mentioned, the staff is in the process of cleaning this mess of a story up. Now with 100% fewer awkward quotes (it was a phase, damn it!)**_

_**Random things you might not have known:**_

_**1)Senpai- a title given to someone who is your senior in comparison to your own experience level.**_


	3. Of Meetings

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing. **_

_**Note: Just pretend that all the wacky shit that's happening in the manga right now is a bad dream. Sasuke magically appeared back home and they all decided being on the same team would be fun, mkay? **_

_**** Semi-important: This story is currently being edited!**_

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Pain. Lots and lots of pain. Lots of horribly cheerful sunlight burning through his eyelids came next. The sounds of disgustingly happy birds chirping in his ear. A sickening light summer breeze coming from the Northwest touching his face and ruffling his clothes.

Now it was time to see if anything was broken.

First step: Move feet. Alright they're still there.

Second step: Move hands. They're ok too.

Third step: move right leg. Ok that was a little painful, but it still moved.

"Oi! Sensei! Sensei! What's that over there?"

Loud obnoxious voices currently splitting head in half. Check.

"Sensei! I think it's moving!"

"Shut up, idiot. There's no need to yell."

Voices that sounded like him as a child. Check.

"Who asked you, bastard?"

"Hey...Obito-kun, Kashi-kun, stop that. Let's go see what's over there."

Voices that sounded like...wait. What?

"Yes, Sensei."

"Hn."

Kakashi opened his eyes slowly and saw a pleasantly light blue sky above him. He lifted his head to see a dark blob moving towards him.

'Obito? Kashi? There's no way this is what I think this is. It has to be some kind of weird dream,' Kakashi thought as he lifted himself on his elbows slightly and blinked a bit to get everything into focus.

When he finally did he almost had a heart attack. There in front of him was his old team. Every single one of them still in one same peice. And his younger self was there too... he really had been short then. He looked to be about...ten? Then... this would be three years before Obito had died...and only two years after his father had committed suicide...

Could this really happening to him? Kakashi tried to fight back the rising panic when he realized what this meant. It couldn't be a dream, could it? He discarded that idea almost immediately. He was in too much pain. Perhaps it was an elaborate genjutsu. Kakashi discreetly lifted his head band and observed his surroundings. It seemed that wasn't the case either.

Either this was real or he had finally gone off the deep end. He preferred to think it was real (he wasn't ready to be commited along with all the other ex-anbu) and so that meant he had to gather his wits and play along.

Kakashi's eyes widened when he realized how his appearance would seem to others at this time. He looked exactly like his father, Jiraiya and all the older shinobi often mentioned this even though besides the hair, he didn't think they had much in common physically. But even the hair was condemning...how was he going to explain this one?

'Can't just ignore this... Could I pass myself off as a long lost relative maybe? I have to make myself as non-threatening as possible...hmmm...'

As Kakashi was lost in thought his old team was slowly moving towards him. Obito broke out into a run and stopped before the figure in front of him who had a serious look on his face...um...eye.

Obito stood with his mouth wide open as he noticed where he had seen that mask and that look before. Minato came up behind Obito and looked at the stranger as well. It took all of two seconds for his mouth to drop like Obito's and for his eyes to bug out of his head when he also noticed just who this man resembled.

"What is it sensei? Obito?" asked a curious Rin as she came across the two gawking ninja. She took a look at the person lying on the ground and gasped as she recognized who the person looked _exactly_ like. The same silver hair, the same eye(s), the same mask, the same skin color, essentially the same build in body except he was obiously a lot taller, and the same look on his face minus the weird way he put his hitai-ate.

"Ummm...Kakashi-kun?"

"Yeah, Rin?"

A much younger Kakashi walked up to his three team mates to see what all the fuss was about. First he took in the idiotic looks on his sensei's and Obito's faces and the sudden pale color of Rin's and he figured something was off.

Then he looked at the person in front of them and his blood ran cold. Who was this guy? If he hadn't known his father was dead he would say that this was him. Maybe it was a long lost relative? Or maybe they weren't related at all! ...no, that couldn't be it. They were practically clones. However, the guy looked like he was in deep thought and he hadn't acknowledged the four people standing there and gawking at him yet.

'Well,' Kakashi thought. 'This has gone on long enough...'

"Oi, you."

No answer.

"Hey! You on the ground!"

Kakashi was startled out of his inner ramblings and looked up when he heard a very familiar voice yelling. When he took in the looks that his former team were giving him plus the annoyed look he was getting from his younger self, he sweatdropped.

'Looks like I spaced out for a bit. I guess that...whatever it was, took more out of me than I realized if I didn't even notice them standing in front of me. Well, I had better get this over with.'

Kakashi sat up on his elbows a bit more, wincing a bit as he did, and eye smiled as he gave a warm, "Yo!"

It was now Team Minato's turn to sweatdrop as they looked at the smiling idiot in front of them and thought that maybe he really wasn't related to Kakashi after all. Minato snapped out of it suddenly and looked at the smiling man on the floor curiously and with a healthy hint of suspicion. It probably was some kind of relation of Kakashi's (because honestly, who else would have _silver_ hair and wear a mask?) and even if it wasn't, they still had to find out why he was laying on the ground in the middle of a training field.

"Ummm...Hi. Might I ask what your name is?"

Kakashi blinked as he wondered how the hell he was going to answer this question. It was pretty obvious that he was related to the kid (or in this case himself), so he guessed he would have to go along with the long lost relative thing until he could get to the Hokage. Kakashi eye smiled again, scratched his head, and gave a thoughtful hum. He felt it was proably best to act a little like a cheerful idiot so they wouldn't be as suspicious of him.

"Oh... my name is Hatake Sakubo"

The three of them looked at 'Sakubo' and wondered how he was related to Kakashi, since it seemed they shared the same surname.

"Really? Well, I guess you're a relative of Kakashi-kun's. His clan name is Hatake too."

"Is that so?" 'Sakubo' gave his younger self an exaggerated look of scrutiny and pretended to study him. He gave them another eye smile."Well, from the looks of it, I'd say that we are too."

Kakashi looked at the man who was a relative of his apparently and gave him an apathetic glare.

"I guess you would be my uncle or cousin or something, right?"

"Maybe. Who was your father, brat?" Kakashi gave him a harder glare before answering.

"Hatake Sakumo, gramps" 'Sakubo' winced.

"Yeah brat. That was my brother. And don't call me gramps"

"Don't call me a brat."

The rest of the team started to sweat nervously when they saw the glares the two were giving each other. It was Rin who finally decided to step in and interrupt the glare-fest.

"Well, since this is Kakashi-kun's uncle, I guess we should help him out or take him to the hokage or something. I mean it is a little worrying for him to all of a sudden show up in the middle of training field 7, especially when he looks to be hurt."

Minato nodded and asked, "Are you okay? You seemed to be having some trouble getting up."

"Ahahaha...yeah... Do you mind?"

"Not at all"

This being said, Minato moved in front of 'Sakubo' and held out his hands so that he could help him pull himself up. 'Sakubo' grabbed the offered hands and slowly (and painfully) got up from his spot on the ground. As he stood up he popped a couple of his joints and shook his limbs out a bit.

"Yup. Definitely an old man."

"Shut up, brat."

"Enough _children_."

Minato gave the silver haired relatives a look.

'Sakubo' gave a weak chuckle and scratched at the back of his head. He cleared his throat and said,"Well...I think I need to speak to your hokage. Would you mind escorting me? I still feel shaky and it would be kind of embarassing for me to collapse on the way there."

Minato blinked and said, "Sure, why not? If you don't mind me asking, how _did_ you get here?"

'Sakubo' looked up at the sky as they began walking, Minato and 'Sakubo' in the front with the other three following.

"Well...it's a long story." 'Sakubo' smiled.

_*****Warning: Copious amounts of unedited chapters in the story past this point unless I say that it's been edited. You have been warned.**_

_**I did make them a little too trusting, didn't I? I mean they're supposed to ninjas... w/e I'm not going to change it now...**_

_**Things you might not have been aware of:**_

_**1) sensei- title given to a teacher**_

_**2) -kun- honorific (less formal than -san)**_

_**3) Minato Namikaze- For those of you who are unaware (lol, spoilers) this is the real name of the Yondaime and Naruto's father, also Kakashi's teacher.**_

_**4) hitai-ate- forehead protector**_

_**5) Sakubo- farm. I had to give Kakashi a new name to get rid of confusion even though I don't really like giving him a different name. I figured that fit in with the rest of his family. (kakashi means scarecrow; hatake means field; sakumo means crops)**_


	4. The Old Man

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing. **_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

_**Oh, yeah, there be spoilers ahead, arr...turn back now! Ye have been warned (aka don't come bitching to me if you didn't read this warning.)**_

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Kakashi walked through the village and noticed how different it was from the future. All of it looked familiar, but only vaguely. Well, he supposed that that would be normal since he _had _been here before. Only as his younger self. Who was right behind him? _Riiiiight_. He had definitely been on too many S-ranked missions lately and all the stress was going to his head.

In the past? pssht, yeah right. Oh look, it's that nice lady that used to give him all those free vegetables from her garden who was now waving at his younger self. Nope, _he_ wasn't insane. Someone out there could sense the sarcasm in his mind, couldn't they?

Kakashi sighed and looked at his former teacher. It looked like Naruto really did take after his father. He probably never noticed it because it had been 12 years since he had seen his sensei when he had met Naruto and not to mention he have never really begun to resemble him until after he came back with Jiraiya. He really hoped that the lot of them wouldn't be stupid enough to follow him here. But then again...

"We're here!"

When Kakashi looked up, he was startled to see the Hokage tower in front of him looking the same as it always did. His old team were all looking at him funny and he guessed they thought it was odd that he kept on spacing off. Kakashi shrugged and opened the door. Minato came in right after him and talked to the chunin that worked the front desk. The ninja nodded at Minato and peeked around him to stare at Kakashi. His eyes suddenly widened and his mouth dropped comically as he looked at the older Kakashi. Minato chuckled awkwardly and he grabbed Kakashi's arm to pull him up the stairs that would lead them to the Sandaime's office.

Kakashi allowed himself to be pulled along and looked behind him. It seemed that the three midgets were going to be persistent about finding out why he was here and were following them.

'Nosy brats,' thought Kakashi. Then he sweatdropped at the fact that he had just called his younger self a nosy brat. 'Damn. I really did have a high opinion of myself back then didn't I? It seems that I'm more like Sasuke than I thought.'

Kakashi came to a stop and he looked at the door in front of him. Alright, this was it.

Objectives:

1) Convince old team to leave the room so he could talk to the Hokage alone

2) Tell old man about who he really was and how he got here

3) Convince the old man that he wasn't crazy and that it would be best to keep this quiet (namely from his former team because face it, that would be really weird)

4) After this is all accomplished try and find a way back.

Right.

Not hard at all!

Kakashi peeked inside the door once it was open. Inside he saw the familiar sight of the Hokage's office, but instead of the usual bitchy, huge-boobed, blonde old hag, he saw someone whom he laid eyes on in years. Kakashi's eyes softened when he looked at the Sandaime, who was old even when Kakashi was young. Although not as old as he had been when he had last been alive. Sarutobi looked up from the paperwork he was reading through and took the pipe from his mouth.

"Yes? Minato-san and...," he said.

"Ah...Hokage-sama, this is Hatake Sakubo, brother of Hatake Sakumo. We sort of found him."

"Hatake? And what do you mean by 'we'?"

"My team and I. Obito! Kakashi! Rin! I know you're out there you might as well just come in!"

The rest of Minato's team shuffled into the room, looking rather sulky and miffed at having been caught so soon.

"Sensei! It's only fair that I hear what he has to say seeing that I was the one who found him!"

"Shut up, idiot. I'm _obviously_ related to him, so therefore I have more right than you."

"What? No way! Who cares if you're related to the guy? Besides you act nothing like him. He's _way _cooler than you are."

"Cool? The guy's an idiot, just like you actually."

"What? Bastard! I'm gonna kick yo-mph!"

Minato chuckled nervously as he trapped Obito in a chokehold and covered the struggling Uchiha's mouth with his hand. Kakashi folded his arms and glared off to the side of the room while Rin was shuffling nervously behind them. The Hokage chuckled a bit too.

"Well, it seems that you both have rather strong arguments, but perhaps it would be better if you simply let me talk to Hatake-san on my own. The older one, of course."

Everyone from Team Minato looked a little disappointed, but obediently walked out of the room and closed the door behind them.

"Now Hatake-san, I'm curious to hear your story, seeing as I know very well that Kakashi has no uncles or any relatives at all for that matter. Although it certainly looks as if you are related to him."

"Ahhh...Yes, well..."

"Hatake-san, it would be best for you not to lie. If you do I will assume that you are an imposter and I will have to have you taken into custody and tortured by our finest ANBU," the Sandaime smiled at him.

Kakashi could only stare.

"Not that I'm implying that you are or that you are going to, but I have a feeling that you are trustworthy since you could have already done many things to harm our village. Additionally, you could have escaped without coming to visit the Hokage as well," the Sandaime continued.

Kakashi thought that they were being a little too relaxed, especially when Konoha would be going to war soon, but he supposed that it was working in his favor.

"I've seen a lot in my life and I think you could trust my judgment for whatever your situation seems to be," the Sandaime finished and he gave him another smile. This one was much more welcoming.

Hatake looked at the not-quite-so-old man in front of him and was reminded of how much he had missed him. Well, might as well try the truth. It couldn't hurt, could it?

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_*****Warning: Copious amounts of unedited chapters in the story past this point. Unless I say that it's been edited in the beginning. You have been warned.**_

_**And yet again the lack of caution/paranoia of the ninja's part...**_


	5. Explainations and Prayers

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing. **_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

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Kakashi rubbed the back of his head as he eyes the old man in front of him.

'Trust his judgement'?

Well, Sarutobi had never done anything that hadn't benefited him in the long run before and he was rather understanding and open-minded.

'I guess I might give it a shot even though I can't really take it back once it all comes out. Lying, in this case, wouldn't be the best option though', Kakashi thought.

He sighed and closed his eyes for a bit. When he opened them again he saw the Third waiting in front of him patiently smoking that pipe of his.

"Alright then. Sakubo isn't my real name and Sakumo isn't my brother. I used it to convince the others to take me too you."

The Hokage raised his eyebrows and tilted as a sort of 'go on' gesture. Kakashi took a deep breath.

"Although I _am_ related to Sakumo Hatake."

"You are? If you are then why would you lie and say he was your brother?"

"Maa...the thing is...I'm not sure if you're going to believe it or not...but..."

"Hatake-san, I told you that you could trust my judgement, if not myself, seeing as I _have_ lived for quite some time. Also if you are related to Sakumo-san in some way that means you're a Konoha citizen or at least you were at some point. Not to mention you have a Konoha hitai-ate. I'm sure you can tell me."

"Right. What if I was to say that I was a ninja and everything, from Konoha, but I was from a different time?"

The Hokage blinked and put down the pipe.

"Another time? The past?"

"Umm...no. More like the future."

"From the future."

"Umm...yeah."

"And you're related to Sakumo?"

"Yeah?"

"Then...you...could you be..._Kakashi_?"

Kakashi raised his hand in a small wave and eye smiled at the Hokage.

"But...how is that possible?"

"Well, It's kind of a long story."

"One that I think I have time for. Tell me."

_**00000000000000**_===_**Kakashi tells the Sandaime everything that has happened in the past 4 chapters, but nothing significant from the past/Third's future, i.e. his death, other hokages, etc.===000000000000000**_

The Sandaime sighed as he rubbed at his temples. Kakashi had sat down a long time ago in one of the chairs surrounding his desk.

"This is certainly a tricky situation for you."

"So, you believe me?"

Sarutobi laughed a bit.

"Yes, I believe you. Luckily for you I have heard of something like before when the Shodai was Hokage. Although it had happened near Sunagakure not on the border of Iwa and Kusa. I'm afraid that I don't know much else. I could look into the archives, but that's the best I can do."

"I...understand. In the meantime, what am I supposed to do?"

"Well you are a capable Konoha ninja, future or not. Is there anything you need to tell me that might effect the past with your stay here. I mean more than it already has."

Kakashi looked up at the ceiling in thought for a bit and then his eye widened.

"Ano...there might be one thing."

"What would that be?"

Kakashi touched the Sharingan eye that was covered by his hitai-ate.

"This."

Kakashi lifted up the headband while Sarutobi looked in curiousity. There was a faded, thin, and ragged line across his left eye. Kakashi opened the eye to reveal something that made Sarutobi gape in disbelief once again.

"How...how did you get the Sharingan?"

"It...was a gift."

"A gift?"

"From a friend who had saved my life with his own."

The Sandaime sighed and started rubbing the sides of his head again.

"Alright. I know that you wouldn't have stolen it or anything like that. Espcially since I _know_ that you're a competent ninja without it, but try not to let anyone see it. I'm not exactly sure what the Uchiha would think."

Kakashi nodded and covered up his eye again. Sarutobi smiled at him and said,"Well the only thing worse that could happen would be that your team decided to follow you here. We can write off your appearence as a long lost relative, but an Uchiha, Minato's son, Tsunade's apprentice, a mysterious root member, and someone with powers of the Shodai Hokage would be a little hard to explain."

"Ahaha...yeah."

Kakashi looked up at the ceiling and prayed to what ever gods that existed and still kinda liked him that his team _wasn't _that stupid.

**0000000000-Meanwhile-0000000000**

Tenzo looked over into the woods where he had seen a flash of abnormal light and the insane buzzing that only continued to grow louder.

'Not good. Not good. God damn that buzzing!' thought Tenzo.

"Oi! Yamato-taicho, what was that?"

Tenzo flinched and looked over to where the rest of the team was lying under their mushroom umbrella. He was met with the gaze of four curious seventeen-year-olds.(Well, two of them rather annoyed, one curious, and one indifferent, but you get the picture.)

"Ano..."

Sakura glared at him and said,"Taicho, where's Kakashi-sensei?"

Tenzo started to sweat as the glares intensified.

"Well, Kakashi thought something odd was going on in the woods so he went to do an investigation."

"What! What do you mean? What happened to Kakashi-sensei?"

Tenzo sighed as he was forced to handle the growing rage of a certain super strong pink-haired kunoichi and decided it would probably be a good idea to tell them what he knew since it didn't seem that Kakashi would be coming back anytime soon.

So he explained everything from Kakashi's earlier suspicions to the strange noise and light that had appeared as Kakashi had disappeared. When he finished the four of the them were looking at him blankly. Tenzo started to sweat again. 'Alright, this is _not _the reaction I had expected.' All of a sudden Naruto jumped up and pointed at him.

"What the fuck! You let Kakashi go check out something weird and possibly dangerous without even telling us! Screw you! I'm going to see what happened to him."

"Yeah! Kakashi-sensei is too reckless. He should have at least warned us earlier!"

Naruto suddenly charged off towards the noise in the forest ahead of them with Sakura following him. Tenzo's and the rest of the team's eyes widened and hurried after them.

**00000000-With Kakashi and the Sandaime-00000000**

Kakashi scratched the back of his head and chuckled nervously.

"Yeah, I'm sure they wouldn't do something like that..."

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_*****Warning: Copious amounts of unedited chapters in the story past this point. Unless I say that it's been edited in the beginning. You have been warned.**_

_**Things you might not have known:**_

_**1) Sandaime- third (as in third hokage)**_

_**2) Shodai- means founding or first (as in the first Hokage)**_

_**3) Iwa- rock (country)**_

_**4) Kusa- grass (country)**_

_**5) kunoichi- female ninja**_


	6. Oops

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing. **_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Naruto hurried towards the odd pulsing light that was now clearly visible through all the foliage. The crackling lightning-like sound only continued to grow louder until his ears were ringing with it. He vaguely noticed Sakura running along side him and the rest of his team running to catch up with them.

Naruto may have seemed angry, but in reality he was scared. Kakashi was one of the few constant people that he had in his life since he became a ninja. Kakashi not being there would be like losing one of those weird, goofy uncles that just always showed up on the holidays. Always there and kinda annoying, but still family.

Naruto began to run faster as the source of the light came fully into view and he came to a sudden halt. Sakura and the rest of them stopped beside him as they all looked at the strange substance in front of them. Sasuke turned on his Sharingan and inspected the pulsing mass.

"There seems to be a mass amount of chakra condensed in the center of that stuff. Some of it actually reminds me of Kakashi's chakra. You don't think he...went in, do you?"

Tenzo looked at Sasuke and said, "I think he may have. Don't you feel it?"

The rest of the team looked at him and then realized what he was talking about. It was like a supernatural pull that was drawing them to the mass. Naruto just stared at the weird chakra that appeared to have eaten his sensei.

"All right you bastard! There's no way you're gonna take Kakashi-sensei!"

And with that Naruto willingly ran into the mass.

"Naruto, you loser!"

There went Sasuke.

"Naruto! Sasuke-kun! Damn it!"

And Sakura.

"Kakashi's gonna kill me."

Followed by Tenzo.

Sai just stared at the pulsing mass of lightening and shrugged.

And Sai too.

**00000000-Meanwhile with Kakashi-00000000**

"Well, in the meantime Kakashi-kun, I think it would be best to find you a place to stay."

The Sandaime began to take some papers out of his desk.

"After we do that, we can make up some false papers and have you working as a jounin until we can come up with a plan to send you home. Does that sound good?"

Kakshi nodded.

"Very well, what do you want to tell your...uh...former team?"

"I think that continuing with the long lost relative idea would be the best. No one else really knows about my family besides you and the sannin, so I think I should be safe unless one of them decides to drop by and just happen to here about 'Sakumo's long lost brother'."

The Hokage laughed a bit and nodded.

"Yes, well, I don't think that that will happen. Jiraiya might drop by, but he doesn't really check up on his favorite student as much as he used to. However, he's more likely to go investigating then the other two. If anything like that occurs I'll just have to explain the situation to him. I'm sure he'll be at least somewhat understanding."

"I guess. Although Jiraiya-sama has never really been very predictable."

"Is he still causing havoc in the future?"

"Yeah, something like that..."

"Figures," the Hokage mumbled under his breath.

"Um...about where I'm going to live?"

"Hm?...Oh, right. I think it would be best if you lived with...well, yourself. I think that if you're going to pretend to be his uncle it only makes sense that you should live with him."

"Right...I'm still living in the house I'm guessing?"

"Yes. I suppose we should call Kakashi and Minato in to tell them about your living arrangements and about joining their team."

"Hm...good thing I had my own genin team or else I probably would have pulled my hair out already with their constant fighting."

Sarutobi chuckled a bit and looked rather nostagalic.

"Well I don't think that your genin team in the future could be any worse then your genin team right now or my own."

'Wouldn't you like to bet?' thought Kakashi.

The Sandaime called for the Hokage's slaves...ehm...chunin to bring Kakashi and Minato back into the office. Suprisingly it took all of 3 minutes.

"You needed us Hokage-sama?" said Minato looking a little ruffled as if he had been sleeping and had just recently woken up.

The Sandaime raised his eyebrows in question at the two shinobi.

"That was rather fast Minato-san. I had thought the four of you would have left after the first hour."

Minato chuckled, his cheeks a little red and scratched the back of his neck. Kakashi simply crossed his arms and stared at them with his normal apathetic glare.

"Well...we didn't think you'd be much longer...and seeing as we're the only ones Sakubo-san really knows here...and the fact that-"

"It's all right, I understand. I actually wanted to talk to you about Sakubo's stay here."

Kakashi and Minato looked at him curiously.

"While here Sakubo will be staying with you Kakashi."

Kakashi looked slightly miffed at this statement, but nodded his consent stiffly.

"Sakubo is also an able jounin who has experience teaching so I would like him to accompany team Minato on missions and during training. Understood?"

Minato gave a small salute and then brought his hand down to stifle a yawn. He grinned sheepishly at them while Kakashi looked a little more annoyed about the fact that he would be spending pretty much all of his time with some annoying 'long lost relative'. Well, the guy was a jounin, so he had to give him some credit, but he obviously wasn't that good. It probably just came with his age.

**00000000-Later with Kakashi and Kakashi-00000000**

Kakashi glared at the man walking next to him.

'Figures that moron Obito would think he's cool. He's supposed to be a jounin. Why is he acting like an idiot?' thought Kakashi.

'Sakubo' was currently humming a random tune with his hands in his pockets while he looked at the trees on the way to his old house.

'Why the hell is he glaring at me like that?' Sakubo thought.

'He'd better not be anything like Obito. I don't think I could stand that.'

'Do I have anything on my mask?'

'Then again he is a Hatake. I guess he couldn't be that bad'

'Or maybe my hair looks funny?...Nah, mine is just like his. If he has a problem with mine then he should just look in a mirror and deal with his own hair first.'

'Why is he rubbing his head? Forget it, he's just an idiot. I bet I could beat him up.'

"We're here, old man"

"Don't call me that, brat."

The two walked into an old fashioned japanese-style house that was surrounded by woods.

"All right, old man, you can stay in the room up the stairs, second door to the left."

"Thanks, kid."

"Don't call me that."

"Whatever. Do you know how to cook?" Kakashi knew full well that he couldn't at that age.

"Umm...no."

"Well then, I'll make lunch."

"You're going to cook?"

"Do you have a problem with that?"

"Maybe I don't want food poisoning, gramps."

"Damn brat."

**00000000-With Naruto and co.-000000000**

Naruto was currently experiencing the worst headache he _had ever _had. And that was saying something since he had a demon in his head...stomach...whatever. Naruto opened his eyes and picked his head up a little. He saw all of his comrades strewn across the grass around him.

"Wait a minute. Grass? Where's the forest? Where are we?"

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_*****Warning: Copious amounts of unedited chapters in the story past this point. Unless I say that it's been edited in the beginning. You have been warned.**_


	7. Sandaime

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing. **_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The Sandaime, currently sitting at his desk in the Hokage tower, was staring at the two Chuunin who had frantically reported the one thing that he had _really_ hoped wouldn't happen. Kakashi's team members seemed to have arrived here in the past, according to the descriptions. He only hoped that they wouldn't make too much of a commotion before he got the chance to contact Kakashi.

**00000000-With Kakashi and Team Minato-00000000**

Kakashi was currently lounging under a tree in training field 3, while Obito and his past self were currently trying to beat each other to a bloody pulp. Minato was on the side lines yelling at each one to _not_ kill the other and Rin was getting her medical supplies ready for when they were done. As Kakashi put his hands behind his head he was reminded of how his old genin team was both similar and different to his future one.

Oh, memories of the past... Kakashi vaguely wondered what the rest of his team was doing without him. He winced. It would probably be best if Sandaime-sama found the way back quickly. He wasn't sure if Tenzo could handle them all by himself.

**00000000-With Tenzo and Team Kakashi-00000000**

Tenzo was currently experienced the biggest headache of his life. The one he had gotten after he had gone through that portal thing was nothing compared to the headache he was getting from the constant bickering and complaining of Naruto and Sasuke, who thought that his opinion was important enough to _share_ with everyone else. Sakura was mostly quiet, surprisingly, and Sai was simply being his unemotional self. His only comment so far had been, "Wow. My head really hurts." Tenzo rolld his eyes mentally. You think _your _head hurts?

"Naruto! This all your fault, you loser."

"My fault! Did I ask you to jump in after me, you jerk?"

"What else was I supposed to do? Twiddle my thumbs while you ran to your death? Idiot, why don't you think before you do things?"

"Well, blaming me for everything isn't going to do anything. Besides we're not dead!"

"Who cares! We don't even know how the hell we got here."

"Through that weird stuff we ran into, asshole. Even I know that."

"Moron, I know that's _how_ we got here, but how did it do that? Got an answer for that?"

"Unfortunately not at the moment."

Everyone in the room turned towards the new voice and everything became still.

"Old Man Hokage?" asked a pale looking Naruto.

Sarutobi looked at Naruto, amused, apparently not used to be called that by random shinobi.

'Although not too random.', thought Sarutobi. 'If not for the scars he could pass for Minato's twin.'

The boy was dressed in a black shirt that was covered by a neon orange vest and on the back was an odd spiral symbol he recalled belonging to the Uzumaki clan. However, while most wore this symbol once they recieved their chuunin vests, he wore it on his regular clothing.

'Strange,' thought Sarutobi.

The third turned to look at the one he had been arguing with and could see immediately that he was an Uchiha. Besides the Uchiha symbol painted on the back of his long sleeved coat, he could see a very close resemblence to Madara Uchiha, the old head of the clan until he defected. The coat was long with a slit in the back to allow him to tie a sword, a chikoto, to his back with relative ease. The coat was open to reveal a muscle shirt with netting over it.He had wrist guards on as well that went on to the back of his hands to loop around his middle fingeralong with standard shinobi pants and sandals. A little unusual for a Konoha shinobu, but still reasonable.

The three other people in the room were slightly calmer than these two. He recognized the root member at once with the blank stare that he was on his face. Although he was still a little odd, even for someone in Root. Who showed off that much skin and wasn't freezing?

He assumed that the pink-haired girl in the medic-smock was Tsunade's student. But he was shocked to see that the young woman even resembled her slightly. Perhaps it was the way she held herself. God help them all if she had the same temper.

The last one was the oldest and looked like he wished he was anywhere but here. He could only assume that this was the man who had some how ended up with the Shodai's mokudon powers and the sandaime discovered that he felt a little curious about the only other man who had the power of his former sensei.

"Old man? Is that really you?"

"Naruto! Stop calling him that," the pink-haired girl, Sakura, hissed at her teammate.

Sarutobi smiled at the young blonde in front of him.

"Yes, don't worry, Kakashi is on his way. I think it would be best for him to explain your situation to you, so I've already sent for him. Would you all come with me to my office?"

They all looked at Tenzo, who was temporary leader in Kakashi's absence, and once a short nod was given they left the holding cell they had been put in by the chuunin who had found them in the training field.

**00000000-With Kakashi-00000000**

Kakashi was feeling the strangest impulse to find the closest solid object and bang his head against it. Repeatedly. Because apparently his team _was_ that stupid.

'I'm going to kill Tenzo,' Kakashi thought bitterly.

One of the chuunin that worked in the Hokage tower was leading him to the tower after informing him that the Hokage had found some 'friends' of his. Seeing as this was only his second day in the past, the only friends he could imagine the Hokage telling him about were the stupid ones from the future that would have followed him into the past.

So when he had heard the message from the Hokage he quickly got up, ignoring the stares he had gotten from everyone else (apparently even Obito and 'himself' had stopped beating on each other for a while), and followed the messenger to go do some beating of his own. Preferably on Tenzo. With knives.

Kakashi sighed as he reached the Hokage's office. The chuunin that had led him here bowed and walked off. Kakashi scratched the back of his head and opened the door. As soon as he had walked in there was a cry of "Kakashi-sensei!" and he was immediately pummeled to the floor before he could even see inside the room. Kakashi opened his eyes and saw only a bright yellow.

'Naruto...,' thought Kakashi. 'At least my time here won't be boring.'

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

_*****Warning: Copious amounts of unedited chapters in the story past this point. Unless I say that it's been edited in the beginning. You have been warned.**_


	8. Relative

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing. **_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Kakashi blinked as the weight on his torso was suddenly lifted off of him. He sat up to be greeted with the sight of Sakura shaking Naruto by the collar of his vest and threatening to hit him for 'pouncing on Kakashi-sensei before he even had time to get in the room'. Kakashi chuckled and got up slowly.

"Sakura-chan, it's ok, I missed you guys too."

Sakura dropped Naruto and suddenly glared at Kakashi. He felt is his eyes widen slightly in fear as she suddenly began to stomp her way towards him.

"And you! You stupid idiot! You're no better then Naruto! What the hell were you thinking! Just jump into the pretty chakra and everything would be fine! Now we're stuck in the god damn twilight zone thanks to you and Naruto!"

While this was being said Sakura got close enough to poke him in the chest as she made each statement. Plus being that this was Sakura, Tsunade's beloved apprentice, those pokes _hurt_ and if it wasn't for Kakashi being a seasoned shinobi, he would have been sent flying back through the door.

"Sakura-chan, calm down," Kakashi said quickly in an attempt to calm his irate team member. The Hokage took this opportunity to make a statement seeing as Sakura's self control was about to fly out the window along with Kakashi.

"Yes, Haruno-san, it might be best to allow your teacher to explain everything before you kill him."

Sakura looked a little startled to be addressed by the Sandaime and she went slightly pink for her momentary lack of judgement.

"Umm...I'm sorry, Hokage-sama."

Sarutobi smiled kindly at her.

"Don't worry, I understand that you must be frustrated."

Sakura nodded a bit, her cheeks still a nice shade of pink. Kakashi chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well,...that was an interesting reception."

"Stop avoiding the subject Kakashi. Why the hell are we here? Last time I checked the Third Hokage was supposed to be dead," stated a rather annoyed Sasuke. The Sandaime's eyebrows shot up at this and Kakashi sighed.

"I'm not too sure why we're here, but the truth is that we've arrived in the past, somehow."

"The past?" said Sakura. "How did that happen?"

"I might be more qualified to answer that acutually," the Sandaime interupted. "Although I know that whatever happened in the future is really none of my business, but hearing that I'm dead is a little alarming."

"Why is that, gramps? I mean you are oooold - _ouch_!" Naruto was currently rubbing his head while a twitching Sakura was behind him.

"Idiot! What did I tell you!"

"Sorry, Sakura-chan," apologized Naruto weakly.

"Umm..Hokage-sama, I don't think it would be best to tell you anything about the future. Even if it is your own death. The only things we'd be able to tell you would have to do nothing about you. Even though we know that you'd never intentionally change the future, you might instinctively avoid doing something that would cause changes to happen there, if we were to tell you about those events."

Everyone in the room stared at Sai, who had been quiet for some time now.

"What?" asked Sai, probably looking as confused as he possibly could. Tenzo cleared his throat.

"Sorry, Sai. We just don't normally hear things that like that from you."

Sai stared a bit and then shrugged and gave everyone his fake smile.

"Yes...well, I wasn't really suggesting that you tell me. It's just that you don't meet people from the future everyday who know when and how you died," the Third said.

"Don't worry about it. It won't happen for some time," Kakashi eye-smiled at him.

Sarutobi smiled back, a little relieved.

"Well, I think I should explain to you what we found out so fa-"

**Crash!**

"Hokage-sama!"

Everyone in the room looked at the door that was suddenly flung open. Kakashi mentally groaned as he finally came to the conclusion that the gods _hated_ him with a fury that matched no other. The person staring at the weirdest people he had ever seen was Obito Uchiha.

"Umm...Hatake-san? Are these your friends?"

"Uhhh...yeah, they're my friends."

Naruto scrunched his nose at being considered friends with Kakashi. Sure he was his teacher and all, maybe he could be considered some weird uncle-like figure, but a friend?

"Ohh..."

"Obito-kun?"

"Huh? Yeah, Hokage-sama?"

"What are you doing here?"

Obito looked slightly confused for a second and then he rubbed the back of his head in embarressment.

"Oh, right. Sensei told me to tell Sakubo-san that we'd be having lunch at Ichiraku's."

"No way! Ichiraku's is-mmpf"

Sakura put Naruto in a choke hold from behind while covering his mouth. She smiled sweetly at Obito and he gave his own nervous smile in return.

"Yeah, so anyway...We're gonna meet up there at 12:30, if you wanna come. You can bring your friends too, I guess."

"That's sounds nice Obito-kun. I'll see you then." Kakashi eye-smiled.

'Just leave. Just leave. Just leave. Jus-'

"Hey, you!"

'Damn it! What the hell do the goddamn fates have against me!'

"I don't know you! Why do you have the Uchiha fan on your back?"

Everyone in the room stilled again as Sasuke's eyes widened. Kakashi thought the shock was understandable since he hadn't seen another Uchiha since Madara.

Sasuke regained his composure quickly as he narrowed his eyes at the younger (older?) boy.

"Because I _am_ an Uchiha, idiot."

Obito went red with anger and exploded at the other boy.

"What the hell! You're just like that bastard Kakashi! And I only asked because I've never seen you around before, you jerk!"

Tenzo and Sakura snickered at the obvious similarities between the boy and Naruto, while Sasuke just looked at the boy indifferently. Naruto looked at the boy curiously.

"How do you know Kakashi?"

Sakura was glaring at him, a silent warning to not say anything stupid or something that would sound suspicious. Obito calmed down and looked at Naruto.

"What? Oh, he's on my team. Hey, you look a lot like my sensei. What's your name?"

Kakashi's eyes widened and he quickly interupted them, not really liking the way this coversation was going.

"Well then...Obito, maybe you should go-"

"My name's Uzumaki Naruto!" Kakashi's faced deadpanned as he was ignored.

"Uzumaki? Hmm... Maybe you aren't related to him then..., but you sure do look a lot like him."

Sarutobi chuckled at the way they were ignoring Kakashi completely.

"Obito-kun?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama?"

"Not that we don't enjoy your company, but I do have things that I wish to discuss with them."

Obito went red again, only this time from embarrassment rather than anger.

"Um, sorry, I guess I'll just get back to training with the others."

Obito quickly exited through the door.

"Now, back to where we left off."

**00000000-Team Minato-00000000**

Obito was unusually quiet as he joined the others. Kakashi and Rin had been having a mild spar (definitely not as life threatening as the previous battle) and Minato was relaxing on the side, mostly yelling pointers to Rin. The two of them stopped fighting as they looked at the abnormally silent Uchiha in front of them.

"Obito-kun? Is anything the matter?" asked their team leader.

"Hmm? No, nothing's the matter. I just gave Sakubo-san the message about lunch and he said that he'd meet us there."

"Alright... any reason why you're so...well...quiet?"

"No, I was just thinking about Sakubo-san's friends that were in the Hokage's office with him."

"Stupid, you didn't just barge in there did you?"

Obito blushed red as he screamed, "Bastard, shut the hell up!"

Minato sighed, "Language."

"What were they like?" asked Rin, who hoped to get the two to stop arguing.

Obito went quiet again and looked as if he was thinking very hard.

"Sensei?"

"Yeah, Obito?"

"You don't have any relatives with the last name Uzumaki, do you?"

"Uzumaki?...Not that I know of. Unless I'm related to my girlfriend, but that would be kind of weird."

The two gennin and single chuunin stared blankly at their teacher. Minato started to sweat.

"What?"

"Sensei...You have a girlfriend?" Kakashi asked skeptically.

Minato sweatdropped and one of his eyebrows started to twitch.

'_Is it so hard to believe that I have a girlfriend? Damn brats..._'

"Yeah."

"Well, that's weird because one of Sakubo's friends looked just like , he had these weird scars on his cheeks and he was wearing a bright orange vest, but otherwise he looked just like your twin."

Minato narrowed his eyes in thought.

"That _is_ weird..."

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_*****Warning: Copious amounts of unedited chapters in the story past this point. Unless I say that it's been edited in the beginning. You have been warned.**_

**To clear up some possible confusion about ages:**

**Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Sai 18 **

**mini-Kakashi 10 **

**Obito and Rin 11 **

**(I figured his team mates would be a little older than him since Kakashi graduated so much earlier)**


	9. Parents and Ramen

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing. **_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The Hokage took a puff from the pipe in his hands and looked at all the people in front of him that would soon find out that they may or may not be returning to their homes.

Homes that just happened to be in a different time period. He was just glad that he was Hokage or he might actually fear for his life. Sarutobi sighed and decided he might as well get this over with, seeing the impatient faces on his young guests.

"As you now know you are in a different time period. Twenty-two years in the past to be precise. On how you got here, I have a vague clue, but I'll have to do some research in some of the older parts of the library to see if I will be able to help you and-"

"Wait old man! What do you mean '_if _we are able to help you'?" Naruto demanded.

"Naruto, shut up!"

Sarutobi couldn't help, but smile at the now pouting Naruto rubbing his head. He was reminded so much of his own team of genin that he actually almost missed those days. Almost.

"It's alright. That was very perceptive of you."

Naruto beamed at him.

"Although I think that the Shodaime left some sort of record on a previous event such as this, I'm not positive that it would help. If that fails we could call on Sunagakure for aid, and we would have to assure them that it would be in purely academical interest and hope that they will be cooperative.

I had told your sensei earlier that an event like this had occured more recently near Suna and they are more likely to have more information than we do here in Konoha."

Naruto and the others were frowning slightly as they thought about their situation. Kakashi inwardly sighed.

'If only we were in the future. Gaara-kun would have given us the records in a heartbeat.'

"So...what do we do here until you get these 'records'?" said Tenzo. The Hokage sighed.

"Well, it was a lot simpler with just Kakashi, seeing as we could just say that he was a long lost relative, but it'll be a little harder to explain Sasuke's or Naruto's appearence."

Sakura's brow furrowed in confusion as she thought about that statement.

"Umm...Hokage-sama? Why would Naruto's appearence be hard to explain? I mean I can understand that it would be difficult for Sasuke because he's from the Uchiha clan, but why Naruto?"

Kakashi cursed himself inwardly for not informing the Hokage about this. Even though he hadn't really expected the rest of them to show up, he hadn't really thought it was a necessary peice of information.

"Well...Naruto's parents-"

"Oh, didn't I tell you, Sakura-chan?" Naruto interrupted.

The Sandaime, Kakashi, and the rest their team turned their heads to look at their blonde comrade who looked pretty calm in the face of what should be a 'shocking revelation.'

"Tell me what?" Sakura asked warily. The rest were silently thinking along the same lines.

"I already found out about my parents a while ago," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head absentmindedly.

Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi were shocked. Sasuke and Sakura for different reasons, but for a good reason. It was well known in their generation that nobody really knew who Naruto's parents were. However, now that Naruto knew _differently_ and hadn't _told them._ Naruto's oldest friends and teammates narrowed their eyes at their blonde companion and swore to themselves that they would beat it out of him...later.

In the meantime, Kakashi was wondering when exactly Naruto had found out and why there hadn't been a big freakout so that he might've been able to mark its passing. Kakashi wondered if it had been Jiraiya that told him or Tsunade... Either way it didn't really matter now. Perhaps it was even a little easier. Although, He would still have to talk with Naruto later to find out what he knew.

"Well then," the Hokage coughed awkwardly as he stared at the room of ninja that seemed to be having the odd relevation here and there.

"As for Sasuke, we might have to tell the Uchiha clan about him being from the future. The chunin who brought all of you here have seen the uchiha fan on his back and are probably already circulating it through the villiage rumor mill as we speak. Unfortunately for us, the Uchiha's keep records of their clan members and we won't be able to say that he just showed up like Kakashi."

Sasuke looked out the window and was trying to currently understand that his family wasn't dead yet. Kakashi gave another sigh, thinking that this situation was more trouble than it was actually worth. Suddenly, a thought struck him.

"Oh, and also the name that I gave to them here is 'Sakubo', so if you're going to call me by name, make sure that you use that name and not Kakashi."

Sakura raised an eyebrow and then all of a sudden burst out laughing. Everyone began to look at her like she was nuts.

"Sorry, it's just that I was trying to picture Kakashi-sensei as a little kid."

Naruto burst out laughing along with Tenzo, Sasuke, and even the Hokage quietly laughing at the comment. Sai really didn't get what was so funny... Kakashi sweatdropped.

"Yeah! We'll even get to see what the mini-Kakashi looks like when we go for ramen," said Naruto with his impish grin.

Kakashi gave Naruto a tired glare and said, "Try not to say anything that would sound suspicious around them. Just act like a normal group of travelers in Konoha and try not to answer their more personal questions. Just be as vague as possible until we can get some kind of plan figured out."

Tenzo nodded and stood up.

"I guess you and Hokage-sama would like to talk now?"

Kakashi gave Tenzo a grateful look and thanked the gods that at least Tenzo understood how big their problem was.

Kakashi nodded and said, "It'll only be a minute, we're just going to discuss where you'll all be living."

The group began to file out, Naruto pouting over the fact that he and his precious ramen's reunion would be delayed.

When they finally left the room Kakashi turned to the Hokage.

"Where will they all be staying? There isn't enough room where I'm living and I doubt that mini-me would enjoy the extra company anyway."

Sarutobi laughed at the 'mini-me' comment and looked out the window that overlooked the villiage.

"Well, I think that while you and your team is at lunch, I'll contact the head of the Uchiha clan and when you return we'll discuss everything with him. That'll be the only way to clear up the situation with Sasuke and they might even have some extra room, if we get lucky. If not we'll just have to get them an apartment on villiage funds until they can pay for it themselves with missions."

"I guess they'll be instated as ninja, too?"

"Yes well, they do have headband's, although I might have Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Sai retake the Chuunin exams. None of them wear chunin vests and they're younger than yourself and Tenzo, so it won't be as easy to make up some records." Kakashi eye widened at this.

"Retake the chunin exams? Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke won't be happy about that. Their first time wasn't exactly fun."

"Well, the chunin exams aren't really meant to be fun."

"I know they aren't, let's just say their time was just a little more unpleasant than normal because of certain...unpredictable outside factors that were worked in."

"I...see."

"Where are you going to put Sai though? Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke function well as a team and there's no reason to split them up, but Sai's the extra man."

The Hokage gave him a small smirk that told Kakashi he may or may not like what he would be hearing next.

"Well, I was thinking on putting him with Minato's team."

Cue blank stare.

"As you know, you've already passed the chunin exams some time ago, but your teammates have yet to take it."

"You're...going to put Sai on mini-me's team?" Sarutobi felt the sweat on the back of his head start to collect when the blank stare didn't break.

"Is there a problem with that?"

'God help my old team,' thought Kakashi.

"Not at all, Hokage-sama"

**00000000-Outside with the rest of Team Kakashi-00000000**

"Naruto sit down and wait, damnit," Sakura warned, her brow twitching.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan, but what's taking them so long? I'm hungry and it's almost a quarter after twelve!"

"We know dickless wonder, just sit. You're pacing isn't exactly helping the time pass any faster."

Naruto went red and gave Sai a nasty glare. Sasuke sighed and leaned his head against the wall while Tenzo was frowning at the office doors thinking about his own situation.

Orochimaru hadn't been caught until after the fourth had died and the third had been reinstated. Orochimaru could very well be torturing him as a child right now...not to mention he couldn't really use his mokudon techniques without caution. What would people say if they saw a person with the first hokage's bloodline? It could go badly and Tenzo wasn't sure he wanted to imagine what might happen.

And Naruto too... Tenzo looked at the pacing blonde. If he lost his temper, what would anyone say about the demonic chakra he all of a sudden started pumping out? Plus he was obviously related to the future fourth hokage.

"Naruto..."

Naruto stopped his pacing and looked at Sasuke. Naruto raised an eyebrow and fidgeted in place.

"Yeah?"

"Your parents..." Sasuke paused, looking thoughtful. He hoped Naruto would catch on to his meaning by bringing up this subject. Sakura leaned forward in anticipation when Sasuke finally introduced 'the topic'.

"Oh," Naruto caught on, scratching the back of his head. "You want to know about how I know, right?"

Sasuke shrugged. If one were to glance at him from afar, it wouldn't look like that he was very interested, but looking into Sasuke's eyes, Naruto could see the intense curiosity being directed at him and he knew that he would have to give some sort of answer.

...somehow he didn't think he could just say that 'the spirits of his parents left behind in his jinchuriki seal told him', but he would have to come up with something...

"Jiraiya told me a bit about my dad," Naruto finally said, even though it was a dirty lie. It was the best explanation. "After that, I want to Tsunade and she told me about my mom and everything else that had happened the day that I was born."

Which was another dirty lie, but at least he had kind of talked about it at one point with Tsunade, albeit a little awkwardly, and if Sakura happened to mention it to her sensei, Tsunade wouldn't be too confused.

"Right..." Sasuke said, still not completely satisfied, but willing to let it slide.

Tenzo could feel another headache coming on.

**00000000-Back with Kakashi and the Hokage-00000000**

The Hokage gave Kakashi a look that put him on edge. He knew what was coming next.

"Why is Naruto's parentage such a mystery to everyone?" Kakashi scratched the back of his neck nervously.

"Well...to make a long story short...Naruto's a jinchuriki." Sarutobi's eyes widened at this and he took the pipe out of his mouth.

"A...jinchuriki? How did that happen?"

"Well, when Naruto was born the Kyuubi no kitsune attacked Konoha. Minato-sensei, being the only one able to contain it, had to seal it away in a newborn infant, Naruto. Unfortunately the seal was...complicated and takes the life of the one who uses it. From what I understand Kushina-san died before Minato-sensei and Naruto was left an orphan.

He was given his mother's surname and a law was passed that made it illegal to even talk about the fox being sealed in Naruto. Even Naruto didn't know until he was 12. Not that it didn't stop anyone from being cruel to him. I guess Naruto figured it out though. Although I'm not sure how exactly."

The Hokage looked very thoughtful at this and stared out the window again.

"Minato becomes the Yondaime Hokage I'm guessing?" Kakashi looked at Sarutobi with wide eyes.

"How did you-"

"Know? Only a Hokage would give his life like that, not that I doubt Minato's devotion to the villiage, but..."

"I understand."

"Besides I'll confess that I've been toying with the idea of nominating him in a few years time anyway so I'm not that suprised. At least I know that I made a good choice."

Kakashi eye smiled and said, "Yeah, you should guess what Naruto wants to be."

Sarutobi laughed.

"Hokage? Something tells me I shouldn't be suprised seeing who his parents are and who his teacher is," Sarutobi gave him a wry smile. "However, I'm guessing you should leave now. Your team must be anxious to get some lunch."

Kakashi sweatdropped at the understatement about Naruto waiting for ramen.

"Yeah, might as well go before I get an earful from the lot of them."

At that, Kakashi got up and walked to the door leaving the Hokage to think about all that had been said. His expression quickly changed to that of amusement when he heard the enraged screams of a certain blonde ninja and decided that Naruto definitely took after his mother.

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_*****Warning: Copious amounts of unedited chapters in the story past this point. Unless I say that it's been edited in the beginning. You have been warned.**_

_**Ugh, what a pain. I had to actually rewrite a lot of this since Kishimoto is a bastard. That's the only valid reason I can think of for why I had to completely rearrange this chapter. Kishimoto is a bastard.**_


	10. Arrangements

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing. **_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

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Kakashi sighed as he was being dragged in the direction of Ichiraku Ramen. He had forgotten that the stand had been around when he was a kid. He'd probably be eating all his meals here if he didn't convince Naruto that the rest of them couldn't survive only on salty noodles.

Not to mention the meeting of his old and newer team was bound to be painfully awkward. Between the two Uchihas, the two blonde hokage wanna-bes, the emotionless nutcase, and the stressed out Tenzo, he was sure something would go wrong. Although he was also sure that both Rin and Sakura would get a long.

They were the only girls and they were both medic-nins with frighteningly similar teams. Well, at least he didn't have to worry about Sakura, unless she lost her temper. Then everything would go to hell. But no worries so far...

As the ramen stand finally came into view Naruto gave a cheer of joy at the promise of ramen and sprinted to the 'place of inevitable doom' (as labeled in Kakashi's mind.)

"Alright! Ramen here I come!" exclaimed Naruto happily while the passersby were looking at him like he had six heads.

Kakashi just shook his head and gave an apolegetic wave and an eye smile to the poor disturbed souls. As the team filed into the stand Kakashi slowly strolled in behind them, more out of dread then his normal lazy tendencies.

When he turned back the flap to look into the resturant to find the two teams staring at each other... well, it was really just Naruto ordering everything on the menu while Team Minato stared at the blonde jinchuriki as Team Kakashi gawked at mini-Kakashi. Everyone except for the two Uchihas who were glaring at each other. Minato stopped looking at Naruto for a minute when he spotted 'Sakubo' in the doorway.

"Sakubo-san! This is must be your team!" said Minato brightly. Kakashi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Um, yeah, ignore Naruto. He's just a little...hungry."

Naruto was currently vaccuuming up the ramen with his mouth and Team Minato was now more in awe of his eating abilities rather than his similarities to their team leader..

Sasuke had sat down on the farthest left (away from everyone else) with Naruto sitting next to him. Kakashi sat down next to Naruto, mainly so that he could seperate the interested jounin from looking to closely at the other blonde. The younger Kakashi sat stiffly on the other side of Minato, Sakura and Rin were sitting to his right while Obito was awkwardly positioned between the two girls and Sai. Tenzo sat on the other end of the bar, hoping that if he placed himself farthest away from where the drama was bound to go down, he would somehow be spared from it all.

The rest of Team Kakashi and Team Minato ordered their food and an awkward silence magically appeared as everyone sat nibbling at their ramen (with the exception of Naruto who was on his second bowl.)

"Sooo..." said Minato in an attempt to break the awkwardness. "Did the Hokage tell you anything interesting?"

Kakashi looked up in thoughfulness as he poked at his ramen.

"Well, Sandaime-sama did say that my students would have to be re-entered in the chuunin exams, because they apparently lost the records from when they first took the exam."

Kakashi eye smiled at Minato as Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura immediately stopped eating. All of a sudden a resounding "WHAT!" filled the air and the shocked looks on his students faces, Kakashi had to admit, were priceless.

"Yes, the Hokage needs you to participate in the Chuunin exams again. I gave him the records of your missions and you're qualified to enter as a team."

"But...but sensei! We've already done the Chunin exams! Twice! That's so not fair!" yelled an upset ramen lover. Kakashi gave a (fake) sympathetic sigh as he patted Naruto on the head.

"I know, but I also know you'll definitely pass. So it's not a problem right?"

"That's not the point, Sensei! We've already done all of that annoying crap! Why do we have to go through it all again?"

"Yeah, and in case you forgot, the first time wasn't exactly a walk in the park," said Sasuke with indignance. Kakashi sighed again and rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, there's nothing I can really do, so you'll just have to do it again, alright? No more arguments."

The three of them settled down, albeit sulkingly, and Naruto moodily picked at his ramen (an odd sight to see).

"Oh and Minato-san," said Kakashi.

"Yes?"

"The Sandaime also assigned Sai to your group for the exams. Seeing as Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto work best as a team and Sai was the odd man out, he thought it would be best and most conveinent to place him with your team."

Minato and the rest of his team blinked in shock while Sai simply looked up and nodded at his superior.

'That's what I like about Sai. He never complains. Even though it isn't really normal,' thought Kakashi.

The rest of lunch was spent mostly in silence with the exception of Minato and Kakashi talking every once and a while along with Rin and Sakura quietly chatting once they had found out that the two of them were both medic-nins.

As the odd group left the ramen stand Kakashi turned to Minato once more.

"Sorry, but I think I should probably discuss housing arrangements with you. Unfortunately, I don't think that my entire team will be able to live with me and the brat. I also lack the nessecary funds to house them in a hotel," said Kakashi. The 'brat' scowled at his relative.

"Ah...That would be a serious problem, Sakubo-san. But seeing as we'll be working with each other, I guess we could help out with that," said Minato nervously looking at Kakashi and Obito who had annoyed looks on their faces.

"Right," Minato continued." Since Sakura-chan and Rin-chan are the only girls, we'll put them together...Sasuke-kun can go with Obito-kun I suppose." Minato winced at the death glares that were aimed in his direction.

"Since they're both Uchiha's and all. Ummm... Naruto-kun can stay with me, I don't really mind. As for Tenzo-san and Sai-kun, can go with...umm..."

"They can live in the house with the kid and me," Kakashi said.

"Wait a second! This is my house, you can't just invite people over!" said the younger Kakashi angrily. 'Sakubo' looked down at him with his eyebrow raised.

"Well, where else are they supposed to go? The both of them are quiet and Tenzou can always live in a tree if he needs to," At that Tenzou shot Kakashi an exasperated look. Kakashi eye smiled back at him.

"I guess...you might have a point," huffed Kakashi, although he didn't really get the tree comment. 'Sakubo' now directed his smile at his younger self.

"Good. Now that that's all settled all of you can set off with your new roomies, except for Sasuke-kun. I need for you to come with me."

Sasuke nodded and Team Minato looked at them oddly, except for Obito who was just happy he didn't have to walk home with the 'bastard'.

"Well, I guess I'll see all of you later. C'mon Naruto-kun," said Minato. He was still curious about the younger blonde that looked like he could pass for his younger sibling.

Kakashi waved to all of them as they all set off in different directions. He looked at the future fourth hokage and he could guess the reason why he wanted Naruto to stay with him.

'He'd have to be blind and stupid not to notice all the similarities,' thought Kakashi.

"C'mon Sasuke, let's go see the Hokage and your annoying relatives."

Sasuke glared at him and ignored him for the rest of the way to the Hokage tower.

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_*****Warning: Copious amounts of unedited chapters in the story past this point. Unless I say that it's been edited in the beginning. You have been warned.**_


	11. An Uchiha Encounter

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.**_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

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Kakashi and Sasuke stepped into the Hokage's office and were greeted warmly by the Sandaime, who was sitting behind his desk with the head of the Uchiha clan standing at his side. Sasuke froze when he realized that he recognized the person that was standing there.

"Hello again Sakubo-san, Sasuke-kun, this is the new head of the Uchiha clan as of a month ago, Uchiha Fugaku," the Sandaime introduced.

Sasuke continued to stare at his father who, to him, had been deceased for the past eight years. Fugaku observed the two before him with stern eyes.

"So this would be Hatake Sakubo-san and...Uchiha Sasuke-san?" said Fugaku.

He looked at Sasuke suspiciously, his eyes made Sasuke feel like he was trying to poke holes into him. Sasuke stood completely still, his eyes on the floor. Why did he feel like he was seven years old again?

"It's odd that we don't have any records on an Uchiha Sasuke. Who were your parents?" Fugaku demanded.

Sasuke's eyes widened when he heard this. How could he tell him that _he_ was his dad and that he would die in about 20 or so years by the hand of his first born son for trying to stage a coup against Konoha? He looked at the Sandaime for help, but he didn't see it and seemed to be in deep thought.

"Ummm...my parents...well, they died a long time ago...and..." said Sasuke looking between his sensei and his father nervously.

Fugaku's eyebrows drew together in confusion and disbelief.

"Even if they died when you were young, you remember their names don't you? Where were you born?" he continued

Sasuke felt torn. He hadn't seen his father in such a long time and now he was being interrogated by him.

"I...can't tell you," Sasuke said, his hair covering his eyes as he continued to look at the ground. Fugaku looked more confused than ever, now more than a little suspicious and angry as well.

"You _can't _tell me or you _won't_? The only reason that I can think of you not being able to tell me is if they were missing nin, but there aren't any Uchiha's in the bingo book. Are you even an Uchiha?" said Fugaku slightly annoyed.

Sasuke still looked at a loss at what to say to him as the Hokage sighed behind his pipe.

"Fugaku-san, calm down. I'm sure that Sasuke-kun isn't lying and that he has his reasons," said the Hokage. Fugaku looked at the Hokage and sighed.

"Alright then... Sasuke can you prove it? Only an Uchiha could have the Sharingan and an imposter wouldn't be able to duplicate it. Even if you are a little young...it would clear up a lot."

Sasuke blinked at this revelation.

'Why didn't I think of something like that?' Sasuke closed his eyes and opened them again, showing a fully developed Sharingan with three tomoe in each eye. Fugaku's eyes widened in shock when he saw how advanced the bloodline was in this Uchiha that no one had ever even heard of.

"When did you fully develop it?" asked Fugaku, his voice thin and soft as he studied the younger Uchiha. Sasuke fidgeted under his gaze a bit.

"I had first activated it when I was twelve and I developed the last stage 7 months later," Sasuke told him.

'He went from having just activated his sharingan to completing last stage in just seven months? And when he was twelve? Where... did he come from?' thought Fugaku.

"Well, Fugaku-san, now that we know that he is without a doubt an Uchiha, would you mind having him stay in the Uchiha compound during his stay in Konoha?" Sarutobi asked. Fugaku sighed and closed his eyes.

"I would, but I do need to know about your parents and why you weren't born in Konoha. I'm sorry, but it's still too suspicious. Especially if you want him to reside in the compound. There must be _some _explanation," Fugaku said, his face grim.

Sasuke looked at Kakashi.

Kakashi saw the pleading look that Sasuke gave him and sighed inwardly. Would it really be okay to tell Uchiha Fugaku this?

"Hokage-sama? Do you think...?" Kakashi let the unspoken question hang in the air.

"If Fugaku-san will not be convinced and is still concerned over Sasuke's lack of records than I think it would be best," said the Hokage. Fugaku gave the Sandaime a questioning look.

"Tell me what Hokage-sama?"

"It concerns the arrival of Sasuke and Sakubo along with the rest of their companions and why all of them are Konoha shinobi with no records even though they are undeniably from Konoha," the Hokage began and he paused for a moment, organizing his words for what he wanted to say next.

Fugaku waited patiently for the Hokage to continue.

"Sakubo-san is not, in fact, Hatake Sakumo's brother and Sasuke-kun _was _born in Konoha and in all likelihood, you know his parents."

"But... how?" asked the truly puzzled Uchiha.

"It turns out that they are all from the not-so-distant future and Sakubo is really Kakashi, except 20 years older," the Sandaime told him, watching the clan leader carefully.

Fugaku looked at Kakashi in shock. Kakashi saw the look and waved at the confused shinobi.

"But how is that possible...?"

"Their team was on a mission in grass country when they were sent here, to the past, by a rather rare natural phenomenom that I am fortunate enough to have a bit of information on. However, we are currently researching the issue for more details. That's all I can really tell you on the matter. Although, like I said, they _are_ from the future and from my calculations, I don't think that Sasuke has been born yet. So the issue of Sasuke's parents and his place of birth isn't really important yet, right?"

Fugaku nodded while still in a slight daze. He looked at Sasuke again.

The hokage looked at Sasuke as well. "Although I am curious. Now that Fugaku knows... would you tell us who your parents are? If you wouldn't mind that it?"

"I give you my word that I won't let anyone know of this," Fugaku told the younger Uchiha. "As clan leader, however, I would like to know."

"Ummm..." Sasuke looked at Kakashi again. Kakashi looked back at Sasuke with a mischevious glint in his eye. He chuckled and nodded at him. The gesture seemed to say 'well, go ahead, if they really want to know'. Sasuke swallowed in a rare show of shaken nerves and kept his eyes steadily on the floor as he answered

"Well... my parents names are Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha..." said Sasuke. At hearing this Fugaku turned white and looked at Sasuke with wide eyes.

"You...and...you're?" Fugaku tried to get the words out. Sasuke simply nodded, still not looking at him, looking more than awkward enough for the two of them.

"Oh..." was all the shell shocked Uchiha had to say as he sat down in one of the chairs by the Hokage's desk.

The Sandaime looked at the two Uchiha's in amusement. Sasuke was radiating embarassment while the other was in shock that he had been interrogating his future son.

"I thought Sasuke had an uncanny resemblance to Mikoto..." the Hokage mused to himself. Fugaku's head shot up and he looked at Sasuke again. If it was possible, his face paled even more.

"I'm glad that we got that out of the way," said Kakashi cheerfully, clapping Sasuke on the shoulder. This seemed to shake some of the stiff awkwardness out of the young ninja and he glared at his sensei.

"I guess you can decide where to put Sasuke now, Fugaku-san?"

Fugaku nodded.

"I... guess I would have him stay with me. Although I have a 1-year-old son... um...your older brother... but he doesn't make much noise and we have plenty of room," said Fugaku, his speech coming out haltingly as he was still trying to wrap his mind around the idea that he was looking at his _future_ son.

Sasuke had tensed slightly at the mention of his older brother, but he nodded stiffly at Fugaku, hiding the emotional turmoil that always seemed to surround him whenever his older brother was mentioned. Fugaku stood up and gestured that Sasuke should follow him as he began to walk out the door.

"Bye Sasuke! and don't forget to meet up with the rest of us in training field three tomorrow at seven, okay?" Sasuke nodded stiffly and followed the clan leader out the door.

'This day just seems to be getting longer and longer, isn't it?' thought Kakashi as he finished up one issue, only to realize that he had a few more waiting for him when he returned home. And then a few more in the days following.

Kakashi waved goodbye to the hokage for the second time that day and started walking to his temporary home that he was now sharing with his younger self, Sai, and Tenzo.

'One step at a time...' Kakashi thought. 'Is the only way to do it sometimes...'

At least it wouldn't be boring...

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_*****Warning: Copious amounts of unedited chapters in the story past this point. Unless I say that it's been edited in the beginning. You have been warned.**_


	12. Settling In

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.**_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

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Naruto looked around the small apartment that Minato had led him to. It was semi-neat, with the occasional scroll or kunai lying about over the furniture. Minato walked in after Naruto and began to pick up some of the things that had been lying around.

"Ah-hah, sorry about the mess. I really wasn't expecting any guests," Minato said apologetically while dumping his collection of ninja tools on a table that seemed to be acting as a make shift desk. Naruto nodded absentmindedly as he continued to look around his father's living space.

"I don't have a guest room or anything, but I have been told that my couch is really comfortable," Minato said, he looked slightly embarassed.

"It's alright. It's better than sleeping on the ground," said Naruto and gave him a smile to show that he wasn't offended. Minato smiled back.

"Alright then, I'll give you a tour of the place. Right now you are in the living room area." Minato gestured to the small room which contained an admittedly cozy-looking couch, a low coffee table that also seemed to serve as a desk, and a TV in the corner. The walls were a plain white, but were covered with either scrolls or the occasional painting, and the floor was made of wood.

"Our next room," Minato pointed to the doorway to their left. "Is the kitchen, which is probably where I spend the least amount of my time. The only thing you'll find in there is instant ramen, some milk, and if you're lucky the occasional leftovers that Rin's family is nice enough to send over."

Naruto nodded while looking briefly into the small kitchenette that was a thousand times better than his own mini-fridgerator and table that served as_ his _kitchen. Although the contents weren't that much different.

"As we make our way down the hall in front of us, the bathroom is located on the left and the linen closet is located on our right where you can easily find all your hygeine materials. The door at the very end is my room, which you probably don't want to go near since it probably looks like a couple of explosive tags went off in there."

Minato gave another grin and chuckle at his (admittedly lame) joke.

"So...um, what do you want to do?" asked Minato, now that he was done with the 'tour'. Naruto thought for a moment and then looked up.

"Well, I kinda lost most of my stuff before I got here and since I don't have clothes for tomorrow and everything..." said Naruto. Minato brightened up after hearing this.

"That's okay, I know a place that'll make you more of whatever you're wearing, so don't worry! Let's go!" exclaimed Minato as he grabbed Naruto's hand and began dragging him towards the door.

"W-wait! I don't have any money! Can we go to sensei's first o-or something?" Naruto pleaded while trying to pull away from the tight grip on his wrist.

"Don't worry about it. Think of it as a good luck gift before you go take the chunin exams. Y'know they're being held this year in the Forest of Death. If I didn't already know that you had passed the chunin exams, I'd feel sorry for you," Minato said laughingly while continuing to drag Naruto out the door.

Naruto's face dropped and comepletely deadpanned.

"You don't say?"

'Nice to know that at the age of twelve I was thrown into a place that even the fourth Hokage was afraid of. Just great.'

**00000000-With Sakura and Rin-00000000**

"Your parents are really nice Rin-san," said Sakura as she looked at the books in the other medic-nin's room.

"I guess so... I guess since they're my parents I really can't see them that way," said Rin giggling a bit.

"Yeah, I know how you feel," said Sakura giggling as well.

'Rin is really nice too. I wonder why Kakashi-sensei never told us about his old teammates before.'

"So, did Sakubo-san teach you medical ninjutsu? Or did someone else?" asked Rin.

"No, Sakubo-sensei hasn't really taught me any jutsu in years, even though he's always willing to help. I have a master back home. She's a really talented medic-nin and she was nice enough to take me on as her apprentice."

"It really sounds like you admire her a lot," said Rin politely.

"Yeah, she taught me everything I know about medical ninjutsu and she taught me how to use my chakra to fight one-on-one." said Sakura. Rin's eyes widened at this.

"You fight opponents with taijutsu? The most I ever really get to do in a fight is throw genjutsu," said Rin.

"That used to be my role too, but shishou says that it's as important for a medic-nin to be able to fight and defend themselves as it is for them to learn medical ninjutsu becuase if we're injured how will we heal everyone else?" said Sakura remembering her training with the slug sannin.

"She sounds wise. What's her name?" asked Rin curiously.

'Oh crap!' thought Sakura. 'If I say that Tsunade-sama is my master then what'll happen? She is one the sannin... Well, Tsunade did travel a lot... maybe I can twist this a little.'

"Um, Tsunade-sama," said Sakura nervously, waiting Rin's reaction.

Rin's mouth dropped and began to move up and down comically.

"Ts-Tsunade-sama is your master!" exclaimed Rin. Sakura gave a small laugh and rubbed the back of her head.

"Ahahaha...did I forget to mention that?" asked Sakura, feeling more like Kakashi with each passing second. Rin deadpanned.

"Yeah, you might've forgotten to mention that," said Rin in monotone.

'Well, now you know, I guess," said Sakura.

"But wait! How did you get her to take you as her apprentice? I mean I hear that she's picky with her apprentices _and_ she doesn't practice as a ninja or a medic anymore. She just travels around with her other apprentice," said Rin.

"Well, I traveled around a lot too with my parents, who are retired ninjas, and when I was 11, I began my official training with Sakubo-sensei for Konoha and when I was 12, we met by accident. I wanted to train under her and bothered her until she took me on, basically," said Sakura.

'I guess that isn't too much of lie'

"Wow, you are so lucky," said Rin in awe.

"Nah, if I didn't have good chakra contol I wouldn't be good at anything really," said Sakura modestly.

"Stop underestimating yourself. I'm sure if Tsunade agreed to train you, she saw more in you than just good chakra control," said Rin with a smile.

"Thanks, Rin," said Sakura returning the smile.

"Don't worry, Sakura," said Rin.

"But...if you don't mind Rin...can you keep this a secret? I don't want anyone to know who my master is. Sometimes the reactions that I get are a little weird, if you know what I mean," said Sakura.

"No problem, Sakura," said Rin.

**00000000-With Sasuke-00000000**

Sasuke walked into his old house which even in the past was frighteningly similar to what he remembered from his own childhood. He went through the familiar motion of taking off his sandals at the front door like his father and walking into the hallway that led to the kitchen.

As Sasuke and his father walked down the hallway, he began to think nostalgically of his childhood, or at least the part of his childhood where his family was still alive. Sasuke sighed as he tried to repress all the horrorific images that passed through his mind's eye. He followed his father into the open door that just happened to be adjacent to the door that Sasuke had opened as a child to see his brother standing over their parent's corpses.

When they walked into the kitchen, they were greeted with the sight of Mikoto feeding a baby Itachi making cooing noises at the stoic infant. Even though he had always held his elder brother in the highest esteem (even when he had hated him), he couldn't help but find this exceedingly funny. The man had killed over 40 elite ninja in one night, had been forced to kill his entire family (excluding Sasuke), had become a missing nin, and had joined a legendary criminal organization filled with some of the most dangerous people of all ninja-kind, was currently being fed by the choo-choo train.

"Good job, Ita-chan! You're such a good boy for mommy, eating all of your yummy veggies too. I'm so proud of you," cooed Mikoto.

Even Fugaku looked slightly amused at the scene, although it didn't have the same meaning behind it as it did for Sasuke.

"Mikoto, we have company."

"Hmm?" Mikoto hummed as she turned to face her husband. When she caught sight of the person standing next to him she looked at him curiously.

"Are you the Uchiha whom no one's ever heard of?" Mikoto asked curiously. She had straightened up from leaning over her young offspring, set down the jar of baby food, and was currently wiping her hands on a towel attached to her apron.

Sasuke nodded slightly in affirmation to the question, a little too shocked to speak after seeing his mother and brother alive again.

"Well, it's nice that we have the chance to meet you. I'm Mikoto and this is Itachi-chan," she said pleasantly and tickled Itachi a little whose face held a small smile.

"It's nice to meet you Mikoto-san," said Sasuke politely. Mikoto laughed.

"You can just call me Mikoto. We _are_ family after all. We even look alike!" Mikoto said cheerfully.

Sasuke blushed a little as he remembered why he had loved and adored his mother so much and Fugaku looked a little pale when Mikoto had mentioned the resemblance, thinking back on the meeting in the Hokage's office.

"Thank you...Mikoto," said Sasuke hesitantly. Mikoto smiled at him warmly.

"Don't be silly. Like I said, you're family."

**00000000-With Kakashi-00000000**

Kakshi hummed as he walked down the path that would lead him to his old family house and wondered whether or not his younger self had murdered his subordinates yet. In his mind's eye he imagined Sai with his fake smile unwittingly insulting his younger self. The chibi would lose his control and turn Sai into a porcupine using senbon needles and kunai.

Tenzo would then proceed to have a panic attack and his younger self would probably go after him too. Fortunately, he had enough faith in Tenzo to believe that he would have enough skill to not get skewered by kunai even if he was having a panic attack.

Kakashi chuckled to himself as the movie in his head ended. However, he seriously wondered what they were doing.

'Guess I'll find out soon enough,' thought Kakashi as the house came into view.

As Kakashi came closer to the house he didn't hear any sounds that indicated an argument or a battle and figured that they were probably ignoring each other (hopefully).

When Kakashi stepped into the house after removing his sandals at the door, he called out, "I'm home!" and walked into the living room.

Sitting on the floor on one side of the table was his mini-self glaring at the slightly nervous looking Tenzo and the smiling Sai. Kakashi eye-smiled at them all.

"Well...nice to know that you're all getting along," Kakashi said with only a slight hint of sarcasm. Tenzo and the younger Kakashi glared at him.

'Right,' Kakashi thought, sweat gathering on the back of his head when he saw the looks. 'Well, no one ever said that my life was boring...'

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_*****Warning: Copious amounts of unedited chapters in the story past this point. Unless I say that it's been edited in the beginning. You have been warned.**_


	13. Waking Up and Being Late

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.**_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

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When Sasuke woke up the next morning, he had panicked slightly when he realized he was in his old room. But after a while he managed to convince himself that this was _not_ another nightmare about his past and that he was actually _in _the past rather than dreaming about it.

Sasuke sat up on his futon and rubbed the sides of his head. Seeing his mother and father again had taken a lot out of him emotionally as well as seeing his older brother as a freaking _baby_. It was difficult to see him and think of all the things that he would have to live through in his short life. However, nothing could be done, unless he wanted to destroy the time/space continuum or whatever existed out there.

Sasuke sighed in frustration. He would have to take this out on Naruto or Sai once he got to the training grounds.

'The training grounds!' Sasuke thought slightly panic as he flipped back the covers and looked at the clock. It read 6:40 a.m.

'Alright, I'm not late yet, but I will be if I don't hurry,' thought Sasuke as he put on the t-shirt and standard shinobi pants that his father had lent him.__

Sasuke walked quickly into the bathroom that was next to his room and quickly did his normal morning routine with some borrowed toiletries from his parents. He then pulled on his coat, wrist guards, and lastly he grabbed his kunai pouch and his chokuto. After strapping on the weapons and looking at the time (6:47) he walked out of his room and into the hallway.

As he entered the kitchen he was greeted with the oddly familiar sight of his mother cooking breakfast and his father sitting at the table reading a newspaper. Although the sight was slightly different being that he was 10 years older, his parents were 10 years younger, and instead of his brother quietly brooding, he was chibified and in a little baby seat playing with colorful foam toys. Sasuke stared at the odd sight of his brother and shook his head to try and get rid of the lingering disbelief.

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun. Would you like some breakfast?" asked Mikoto pleasantly. Sasuke shook his head.

"I'll be late," explained Sasuke to his mother (although she herself didn't know she was).

"Alright then. I'm going to make lunch at 11:30, so if you'd like to eat here come at around that time if you can," said Mikoto as she began putting some food on two plates.

"Thank you, Mikoto-san," said Sasuke. Mikoto smiled at him.

"I thought I told you to just call me Mikoto?" she scolded lightly. "Hurry up though. You don't want to be late."

Sasuke nodded and began to walk towards the door.

"_Oi! Sasuke!"_ yelled a loud and obnoxious voice that could only belong to one person. Sasuke put his hand on the door frame and groaned.

'Naruto, I'm going to kill you,' thought Sasuke murderously.

Mikoto giggled slightly. "I think your friends are waiting for you," she said.

Fugaku simply glanced at Sasuke from over the top of his newspaper and raised an eyebrow. What kind of friends was his... son making?

Sasuke sighed and waved good-bye to the occupants of the room as he rushed towards the front of the house. When he reached the entrance he slipped his sandals on and quickly rushed out the door.

"Naruto! You dumbass! What's wrong with you?" Sasuke yelled as he walked up to his teammate. Naruto smiled obnoxiously and rubbed at the back of his head as he chuckled a bit.

"What? It got you to come out, right bastard? Now come on or we're gonna be late for training," Naruto said as he began to walk towards the exit of the Uchiha compound. Sasuke sighed and follwed him out of the complex to the training grounds.

**00000000-At the training grounds-00000000**

Kakashi sighed as he read his book while leaning against his favorite tree in the training area. His teammates would probably get the shock of their life when he saw that he was on time, but his reasons for his being late were now alive and well. Plus Obito would be late enough for all of them.

He looked over at the rest of Team Minato and his own team. So far the only ones not here were Sasuke, Naruto, and Obito. Minato had explained that Naruto would be stopping by the Uchiha Compound to get Sasuke because Naruto knew that he hated to wake up too early in the morning. And Obito...well, no one really ever knew where he was.

'Speak of the devils,' thought Kakashi as he saw...well, really more like _heard_ his two ex-students coming up the path towards them.

"Did you really have to yell, you total idiot? Knocking would have been fine you know," said Sasuke with his eyes narrowed at the blonde.

"Are you still complaining about this?" Naruto asked looking up at the sky with his hands behind his neck.

"Yeah, I'm still complaining. That was stupid. Although I guess I shouldn't expect anything better from you, moron."

Naruto narrowed his eyes, matching the look that Sasuke was giving him except with a slightly more petulant scowl.

"I was concerned for my safety, bastard. Most people who try and wake you at close range end up getting blown up," Naruto growled at the Uchiha.

"That happened only _one _time," Sasuke growled back.

Kakashi chuckled behind his book at the two and Sakura simply sighed and pulled the two down next to where she was sitting. Minato smiled at the group.

"Well, the only person left to show up is Obito now," said Minato cheerfully as he laid back down on the grass.

"Sensei, you know that Obito won't be here until at least nine. Can we start now?" said Kakashi, annoyed, while stabbing the ground with a kunai. Minato smiled patiently as he put an arm over his eyes to block out the sun.

"Kashi-kun, you know that we can't start until everybody is here. We'll just have to wait a bit is all and you never know this might be the day where Obito shows up on time," said Minato cheerfully.

Kakashi scoffed and stabbed a little more viciously than before. Sakura frowned though at the exchange. When had Kakashi not been late? This Kakashi seemed worlds different from the one that they knew. Well, except for the cold arrogance that showed up occasionally when he was fighting someone, but otherwise the Kakashi she knew was more like Minato-san and Obito-kun.

'What happened to him?' she thought as she looked at the two Hatakes.

**00000000-3 hours later-00000000**

The two teams were in varying states of sleep. Sasuke had dozed off slightly while Naruto was in the middle of fighting off sleep with his head nodding as he tried to stay alert. Minato had also dozed off while the older Hatake had slid down the tree to rest it against a root as a makeshift pillow, his book acted as a sun visor for his one eye.

His younger self had given up on his mission to mutilate the ground and settled for lying on the ground napping along side his sensei. Sai was doodling in his sketch book while Tenzo looked bored sitting cross legged with his head in one hand. Sakura and Rin were talking to each other quietly and giggling every couple of minutes. Everything was quiet.

"Did I make it? Did I make it?" someone yelled in the distance. T

The younger Kakashi sat up from his position from the grass and groaned, shaking his head as he got up off the ground, wiping his pants off as he stood. He gave his sensei a small kick which caused Minato to jump slightly and he immediately sat up trying to look alert while rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Whazzat?" he mumbled, getting up as well.

The other member of Team Minato got up too, along with Team Kakashi, except for Naruto. He seemed to have finally succumbed to sleep and was snoring. Sasuke rolled his eyes and gave Naruto a quick jab in the ribs with his foot. Naruto's eyes popped open and he looked around wildly.

"Wha? Whad'I miss?" he asked, his voice thick with sleep. Sasuke scoffed and glared down at the moron (in a friendly way of course).

"Get up, dumbass, the other idiot decided to make his appearance," said Sasuke.

Naruto glared at Sasuke in response.

"Jeez, couldn't you be a little gentler?" whined Naruto, rubbing his ribs where he had been kicked.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned towards the other Uchiha that was running (and stumbling) towards them.

"Did I miss anything?" said Obito frantically. "I'm not too late am I?"

He lifted his goggles and rubbed his eyes slightly before putting them back in place.

"No, you didn't miss anything, Obito-kun," Minato said with a kind smile. Obito smiled back gratefully.

"So what's the excuse today Obito?" asked Kakashi with a scowl. "It'd better be a good one. You're three hours late."

"Shut up! I was going to make it on time, but my mom needed help around the help and then...there was a cat in a tree! So I had to help it, right?" said Obito, confident with his explanation. Both teams sweatdropped at the pathetic excuse.

"Idiot, you're a ninja! You should follow the rules and regulations! Being on time is just one thing that a competent ninja should do naturally," Kakashi scolded him. Obito went red.

"Bastard, I outta-" Obito growled. Minato quickly stepped between the two.

"Stop you two. Obito try not to be so late next time and Kakashi, try to lighten up," Minato told them sternly. Both boys looked at the ground and muttered their understanding.

The members of Team 7, namely Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura, were extremely confused. How could _this _be their sensei?

Since when did he care about rules and regulations? Wasn't he the one that told them that those who broke the rules was called trash, but those who didn't take care of their comrades were even lower? Didn't he tell them that teamwork was the most important thing to know?

The same thought was running through all of their minds, 'Was this _really_ the Kakashi that they knew?'

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_*****Warning: Copious amounts of unedited chapters in the story past this point. Unless I say that it's been edited in the beginning. You have been warned.**_


	14. Omake!

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.**_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

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Naruto had been sitting by the bridge that his team would regularly meet at sometime in the future while enjoying the peace that having a day to himself brought. He had been thinking about going to bug Sasuke or something, but being in the past put Naruto in a oddly melancholy mood that was out of character for him. He sighed and peered into the water below him. The past brought up all these weird thoughts in his mind that he normally didn't dwell on, like with his parents.

Naruto looked up at a sudden noise and looked at the end of the bridge to see Obito and Rin arguing while they were walking quickly towards him. Naruto's brow furrowed as he watched them walk up to him.

Rin looked at Obito pointedly and Obito huffed as he marched straight up to Naruto. When he was directly in front of him he began to fidget and look at the river that was below them.

"Umm...Naruto-san?" said Obito hesitantly. Naruto raised an eyebrow at his behavior, but looked up to face him anyway.

"Yeah?" encouraged Naruto.

"Well, I was wondering...I mean Rin and I were wondering...if maybe you would...um...help us with something?", said Obito while still not looking at him.

"Sure, what do you guys need help with?" Naruto asked curiously.

Obito looked back at Rin and shuffled his feet a bit. Rin waved her hand to urge him on.

"Well...we were wondering if...well, we thought you might want to...um...that is-" Obito fumbled before Rin cut him off.

"What Obito is _trying_ to say," said Rin as she walked up next to Obito."is that we wanted to know if you would help us catch Kakashi-kun without his mask on."

The two of them looked at him expectantly.

Both of Naruto's eyebrows flew up as his mind registered what they were asking of him. Flashbacks to Team 7's last attempt to look under Kakashi's mask raced through his mind. Had Kakashi been wearing this mask forever or something? Naruto facial expressions changed so quickly that the two genin took a small step back in fear.

Naruto gave a feral grin as he came to a very important realization. Wouldn't unmasking a mini-Kakashi be 10 times easier than unmasking a fully grown one? As he began to chuckle evilly Obito and Rin began to cower slightly. He turned his grinned to the two of them.

"No problem. Me, Sakura, and the bastard have been trying to unmask Ka-Sakubo-sensei for a while now. So, I guess we can help you out with the chibi-sensei. I'll go get them and we'll meet back here at noon okay?" said Naruto with the grin still on his face.

Obito and Rin returned his grin when they realized that he was going to help them.

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"Come on, Sakura-chan! We've been trying forever and with the mini-Kakashi we might have a chance!" Naruto whined to his female team mate.

Sakura sighed as she leaned against the fence behind her and crossed he arms.

"I don't know Naruto. I mean it was just plain embarassing the last time we tried and I don't think it'll be the same as looking at the older Kakashi's face," said Sakura as she closed her eyes and sighed.

"You can't tell me that you're not still interested!" Naruto pressed. "We even have extra help!"

Naruto even pouted a little for extra effect. Sakura peaked one of her eyes open and immediately regretted it once she saw 'the pout'. She hung her head and let out a sigh of exasperation.

"Alright, alright. I'll play along. I guess you want to try to get Sasuke into your lame-brained scheme again? It won't be easy you know," said Sakura. Naruto gave her his famous fox-grin.

"Don't worry about the bastard. I can get him to join in," Naruto said as he began to chuckle evilly for the second time that day (and certainly not for the last time).

Sakura eyed him warily and shook her head. Once Naruto got motivated about one of his stupid schemes it was hard to dissuade him to do otherwise.

"Well, good luck. I guess I'll see you at the bridge in an hour," said Sakura as Naruto sprinted in the direction of his next stop. The Uchiha Compound.

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"Sasuke!" screamed Naruto outside of the house Sasuke was currently staying in. He waited outside for a few moments and was startled slightly when he felt the blood lust pouring off of his best friend as he appeared in the doorway.

"You Idiot!" Sasuke seethed while the sharingan in his eyes spun madly.

"What the fuck did I tell you about doing that? Can't you knock?" he asked while stomping his way towards Naruto.

"Sorry about that," Naruto said meekly while rubbing the back of his head. Sasuke sighed and rubbed his temple to ward off the upcoming headache.

"What do you want?" asked Sasuke tersely. At this Naruto grinned as he was reminded of his purpose.

"Hey, Sasuke..." said Naruto slyly while giving Sasuke his famous fox grin.

Sasuke stopped rubbing his head and looked up at his teammate.

"What...?", he asked cautiously.

"Remember that time when we tryed to see what Sensei's face looked like?" asked Naruto slowly as if he was just bringing back fond memories from their childhood. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his friend.

"Yeah, it was kinda hard to forget seeing as how many times we embarassed ourselves. Why? What about it?" asked Sasuke while keeping his narrowed eyes fixed on Naruto as he crossed his arms.

"Well...," began Naruto. "I was sitting on the bridge earlier when chibi-Kakashi's teammates approached me with an interesting offer."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"And...?" Sasuke asked impatiently.

"Well, they had asked me whether or not I would help them take off Kakashi-chibi's mask and I said that we would help!" said Naruto with a smile.

"No," stated Sasuke simply as he turned to go back inside the house.

"What! Why not? I already got Sakura-chan to agree!" whined Naruto.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Naruto, is your attention span really that short or are you just stupid? Didn't you hear me earlier? The last time we tryed that it was just _embarassing_. Why would I want to do it _again_?"

"Well, maybe because this time we're dealing with a _less experienced and younger_ Kakashi and we have reinforcments!" said Naruto cheerfully.

Sasuke sighed.

"But still. Kakashi was a prodigy or rather _is_ a prodigy and he's twice as anti-social and paranoid now than he was the last time we tryed it," Sasuke said as he continued on his way back to the house. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the retreating. Time to pull out the big guns.

"But...you can't tell me you're not still curious," said Naruto with a sly grin.

"Don't you remember...? Fish...lips...?" Naruto said slowly, satisfaction rising as Sasuke stopped short.

"Or maybe...buck-teeth?" Naruto continued as he had to hold in his laughter when the tell-tale shiver went up and down Sasuke's spine.

"Nah... I guess you're right. It's stupid and you're definitely not interested," said Naruto as he turned on his heel and began to walk away.

_5...4...3...2...1..._

"Wait!" called Sasuke as he hurried to catch up to his friend. "You'd better have a good plan this time, loser."

Naruto simply smiled. _'Don't worry Sasuke. We'll get him this time'_

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"All right Team! This is a delicate operation! One that is to be handles with skill and finesse!" Naruto stated as he stood in front of his recruits.

Rin and Obito were standing military style while saluting him. However, Sasuke and Sakura looked like they wanted to kill themselves for just being in the same area as their lame-brained teammate. Naruto ignored his teammates as he continued to lecture his troops.

"Our goal must always be kept in mind! We cannot give up no matter what! Do I make myself clear?" commanded Naruto.

"Sir, yes, sir," Obito and Rin shouted back. Naruto nodded approvingly. Sasuke and Sakura just rolled their eyes.

"Naruto? Can you just get on with it?" said Sakura impatiently with her arms crossed and her foot tapping. Naruto laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head.

"Uh...yeah..._ahem_...at ease troops," said Naruto normally. Obito and Rin relaxed their stances, but continued to look at him eagerly.

"Alright, here's the plan," began Naruto seriously.

"What we have to do first is lure Kakashi out of his house. To do that we'll send Obito and Rin to go and tell him that he's won a free meal at his favorite restaurant. I'll go to the restaurant in advance so I can pay them off and have them play along. Sakura and Sasuke will shadow the chibi to the restaurant and will be the one's to get the picture of him once he's there. Make sure that the two of you are positioned in different places so that if anything happens near one of you the other will still be able to get the picture. Any questions?" Naruto finished.

Rin and Obito shook their heads with big grins on their faces. They had _so _picked the right guy!

Meanwhile Sasuke and Sakura just stared at their teammate in shock. Had _Naruto_ of all people just come up with a well-thought out and seemingly effective plan?

"Okay!" said Naruto with a grin on his face. "Let's head out!"

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Obito shifted on his feet nervously. Kakashi was looking at both him and Rin with his (annoying) half-lidded gaze and for a second he wondered whether or not they had screwed up their boss' awesome plan.

_'No!'_ thought Obito. _I can't let him down!'_

The bastard was going to go along with it whether he wanted to or not! If he didn't agree first he would make a grab for-

"Okay," the bastard said and Obito blinked at him, his train of though interrupted.

"Great!" said Rin cheerfully. "Come on!"

Rin grabbed his hand and Kakashi's and they started towards the restaurant. Obito stopped worrying and grinned.

_Phase One was complete_

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Sasuke crept through the trees keeping track of their target. He caught Sakura's eye, who was stationed a little farther ahead.

'_So far so good,'_ thought Sasuke.

The target almost hadn't accepted the bait, but it seemed the he was just as cheap now as he was in the future. Altough they would still have to be very cautious.

"Oi! Sasuke!" Naruto's voice came in through the head set.

"What is it, moron?" Sasuke asked.

"_Bastard,_" Naruto mumbled softly. "What's your position?"

"The target has just left his house and we're nearing your location. What's your status?"

"Heh. The owner's have been successfully bribed and want copies of the pictures when we're done. Do you and Sakura have your cameras prepared?" asked Naruto.

"Affirmative," said Sasuke.

"Good. I want you and Sakura to pull ahead of the others and get to the restaurant before them. Do this once you get to the more populated part of town. Did you get that Sakura?"

"Loud and clear," came Sakura's voice.

"Alright. I'll see you soon," said Naruto and he disconnected.

Sasuke shook his head. No matter what he said Naruto wasn't really an idiot anymore.

000000000000000000000000

Naruto took a deep breath as he peeked out from behind the flap that concealed the kitchen from the dining area of the restaurant. He had been lucky that the owners had been willing to cooperate. They had even let him disguise himself slightly by giving him a kitchen apron. Well...it might not been a great disguise, but it stood out less than the neon orange that he normally wore.

Naruto sighed in relief when Sakura and Sasuke, who were wearing illusions, had arrived. They sat in seats on oppisite sides of the restaurant, but would still have a clean shot of their target's face from what had been reported to be Kakashi's favourite place to sit.

Just as they had gotten settled naruto spotted his other two accomplices with the target. Naruto gave another foxy grin as he ducked behind the flaps that hid the kitchen.

_Phase Two was complete._

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_*****Warning: Copious amounts of unedited chapters in the story past this point. Unless I say that it's been edited in the beginning. You have been warned.**_


	15. Omake! cont'd

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.**_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

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Kakashi would be lying to himself if he said that he wasn't feeling suspicious, but...it _was_ his favorite restaurant and he couldn't sense anything wrong with his teammates chakra signatures to suggest that they could be enmeny ninja, so what was wrong with treating himself to a little free meal every once and a while?

The small smile that stretched across his face was hidden by his mask as the restaurant came into view and he could smell the mouth-watering scent of good food cooking in the kitchen. Obito chuckled nervously and held the flaps open for Kakashi. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the cry-baby Uchiha.

'_Well, that's a little weird_,' thought Kakashi, but he shrugged and sat down in his usual seat.

His two teammates who were still chuckling nervously and fidgeting slightly sat across from him as the woman who owned the restaurant came up to their table.

"Kakashi-kun! I see you came for your free meal," she said while winking at him.

Kakashi rolled his eyes in his mind at the childish treatment he was getting, but kept his face an emotionless mask as he nodded curtly at her.

"Well, what would you like today?" she asked eagerly.

Kakashi crossed his arms and thought for a moment.

"Miso with eggplant," he said after a tense few seconds.

The older woman sweatdropped as she turned to the other two young shinobi to ask them what they wanted. Obito and Rin sweatdropped too seeing as that was what Kakashi ordered _all_ _the time_. Although this time he wouldn't be able to trick them into looking away when he began to eat. While keeping this in mind, Obito and Rin placed their orders and grinned as they thought, '_Finally! We'll get to see Kakashi's face!'_

000000000000000000000000

After a few nerve-wracking minutes of failed small talk, the small group sat in an uncomfortable silence as they waited for their food. Obito and Rin jumped as they heard the old woman make her way from the kitchen to their table.

"Here you go Kakashi-kun. Your free meal for being such a loyal patron for such along time," said the woman while she placed down the meal in front of Kakashi.

Kakashi nodded and unfolded his arms to pick up a pair of chopsticks. Obito and Rin were so dazed by the upcoming moment of truth that they didn't even notice their own orders were being set down.

**Ba-Bump**

They all gulped simultaneously when he slipped the paper wrapping off of the chopsticks and made as if to break them apart.

**Ba-Bump**

"Well," he said, his voice had a wry tone to it. The two of them stared at him, confused.

"Aren't you going to eat your food? You've been staring at me for almost a minute now."

Obito and Rin nodded and picked up their own chopticks.

**Ba-Bump**

Kakashi shook his head and sighed. He broke his chopsticks apart and murmured a quick "Thanks for the meal" as he began to pull down his mask.

**Ba-bump**

Both Rin and Obito had frozen in their seats again as they stared at the boy in front of them.

Was he going that slow on purpose!

**Ba-Bump**

Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto held their breathes too as they figured their plan might actually work for once.

**Ba-Bump**

Lower...and Lower...and Lower...and then- **CRASH! **

All heads in the small restaurant turned towards the entrance as the tense moment was broken by the loud noise and the green blur that came barreling into the restaurant.

"MY GREATEST RIVAL!" bellowed a small boy in green as he crashed into Kakashi's table.

"I CHALLENGE YOU TO A- um...greatest rival...?" asked the once confident boy weakly as he stood atop of the flattened table facing his murderous looking 'rival'.

All eyes had turned back to Kakashi and they groaned when they realized that he had pulled his mask back up.

"Gai?" said Kakashi slowly with his head facing the floor looking at his free meal ruined on the floor and under the sandals of a certain green clad ninja. At the acknowledgement from his greatest rival Gai perked up again and gave his best pose along with the tumbs up-wink-sparkle combo to his audience.

"Yes, Greatest Rival?" he asked while keeping up his pose.

"Start running," said Kakashi in a low voice as he kept his face to the ground.

"YES! WHAT A WONDERFUL YOUTHFUL CHALLENGE! RUNNING IS-"

"Gai," said Kakashi as he snapped the chopsticks that were still in his hand. Gai deflated again as he dropped his pose and looked curiously at the other boy.

"Yes, Greatest Rival?" asked Gai. Kakashi finally looked up and the other occupants of the room froze at the pure muderous intent that radiated from him.

"I said to start running," said Kakashi as he finally sprang into action.

Taking two kunai knives from his side pouch, he flung them at the boy in front of him. Gai threw himself out of the way and finally began to run back out of the restaurant with Kakashi throwing more kunai as he followed him.

Both Obito and Rin were slack-jawed as they looked at the two kunai that had embedded themselves in the wall behind them and then at the two running figures outside.

_Phase Three? Not so complete_

_Operation 'Trick Kakashi': __**Failed**_

Their small group gathered outside of the restaurant after they had fixed up the restaurant and apologized profusely to the owner for what had happened. All of them looked rather depressed as their plans had once again been ruined by some random act of God. Naruto spoke first.

"Well...that...didn't go as well as I had planned. Sorry guys..." said Naruto as he kicked a small rock near his foot dejectedly with his hands in his pockets.

"It's okay boss. No could have predicted that that freak of nature was going to barge in right at that second," said Obito quietly. Rin nodded.

"Hn," was the eloquent reply from emo-boy wonder as he crossed his arms and looked away from them.

"Yeah, don't worry Naruto. It was a really good plan. We almost got him," Rin said offering him a weak smile.

"Yes, you almost did," said a familiar voice from behind them.

All of them turned to face their 119th suprise for the day. Team 7's jaws fell open when they say their sensei leaning on the wall next to the restaurant entrance.

"Ka-ka-ka-ka," Naruto stuttered incoherently. 'Sakubo' chuckled as he flipped the page of his Icha Icha Paradise book that he was fortunate enough to have brought with him (from the future).

"You had great teamwork! Good job!" he said while giving a happy eye smile over the top of his book as he turned and begant o walk away from them.

"WAIT! SAKUBO-SENSEI YOU PLANNED THAT! THAT'S SO NOT FAIR!" yelled Naruto as he was shocked out of his stupor. Sasuke and Sakura simply grabbed the back of Naruto's shirt and sighed as he made to charge the grey haired man that was now waving at them while he continued walking down the street.

_Omake: COMPLETE_

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_*****Warning: Copious amounts of unedited chapters in the story past this point. Unless I say that it's been edited in the beginning. You have been warned.**_


	16. Teamwork

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.**_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

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"Alright everyone," Minato began. The chuunin exam participants-to-be were lined up in front of him.

"As you already know Sai is going to be joining my team so that they can enter the chuunin exams since Kakashi-kun already passed 4 years ago."

Kakashi, who was standing next to Minato with his arms crossed, nodded in response to the acknowledgement.

"Wait a minute! How old is this kid? Nine? How could he have passed the chuunin exam at all, nevermind 4 _years_ ago?" said Naruto in disbelief while pointing at the midget standing next to the future yondaime hokage.

"For your information I'm 10 and maybe I passed because I'm just better then you are," said Kakashi condescendingly.

"You little brat! I outta-," Naruto started to stalk towards Kakashi, intent on causing bodily harm. However, Sakura and Sasuke grabbed both of his arms to hold him back.

"Naruto, calm down!" Sakura said impatiently. "You did kinda start it."

"Yeah, moron," Sasuke added. "Just stop it already so we can get this over with."

Naruto pulled himself free from their hold and huffed while straightening out his clothes.

"Fine, whatever," he said while glaring as discreetly as he could at the mini-version of his sensei. Minato chuckled nervously while rubbing the back of his head. He gave a small cough to get their attention back on him.

"Well...anyway," he said awkwardly. "As I was saying, Sai will be joining Obito and Rin to take the chuunin exam. Since they've never worked together before, I've signed them up for a few D-ranked missions in addition to the normal training sessions so that they get used to working together as a team before the exam, which is in two weeks."

"What! Sensei? I thought we would be done with the D-ranks by now!", whined Obito at the mention of the D-rank missions. Minato sighed.

"Well, Obito you are still a genin and it_ is _your job to take on both D-ranks_ and _C-ranks. However, we don't have time to do any C-ranks _and_ train before the exam so this is how it's going to be. Okay?" Minato said sternly.

Obito looked down at the ground and shoved his hands into his pocket as he sulkingly mumbled that he understood. Minato gave him a small smile.

"As for the rest of Sakubo's team, they'll be training under Sakubo-san and Tenzo-san for the next two weeks. The hokage already gave them the required number of missions that they needed to enter the exam," said Minato. Obito's head shot up at this new peice of information.

"Wait, what? How come they don't have to do D-rank missions? That's not fair!" Obito complained.

"Well, they've already been working together for a long time and they've already become chuunins, although they have to retake them since we seem to have misplaced the records because of their long-term absence," Minato stated calmly. "So they only have to do some mild training to keep them from getting a little rusty while we work on our teamwork."

Obito accepted this grudgingly, but he still muttered angrily to himself about the unfairness of the situation.

"Alright! No wimpy D-ranks for us!" cheered Naruto while bringing his arms to support the back of his neck, a cheeky grin on his face.

"Actually Naruto, I was thinking that we could also work a couple of D-rank missions into our schedule. Even though I will admit that your teamwork has improved over the years, practice makes perfect, right?" said Kakashi while giving them all a friendly eye-smile. Team 7's jaws dropped and Naruto started to twitch slightly.

"WHAT? Sensei this has to be a joke, right?" screamed Naruto while pointing dramatically at Kakashi.

"Hn," Sasuke voiced his agreement while crossing his arms and glaring menacingly at their teacher. Sakura bit her lip and refrained from arguing, knowing that it would do them no good once their sensei had set his mind on something.

"Naaa!" Obito childishly stuck his stuck out and pulled on his lower lid. Naruto bristled at the sight and started to make rude hand gestures when Kakashi grabbed him and gave him another eye-smile (albeit a more threating one).

"Now, Naruto, we _all_ need to keep improving our skills no matter how skilled we think we might be in a particular area. That would include something like teamwork, am I right?" at this Kakashi's eye opened and he locked Naruto's eyes in with a threatening glare as thunder and lightening stormed in the background.

Naruto chuckled nervously.

"You...may have a point sensei," he conceded while tugging his hand out of Kakashi's grasp. The tense atmosphere immediately dissapeared and the eye-smile was back in place.

"Good, I'm glad that you understand. Sasuke, do you agree as well?.", Kakashi said cheerfully.

Sasuke paled slightly, quickly turning his head away while nodding his agreement.

"Alright then, Minato-san, is there anything else that you need to say?" said Kakashi while turning towards his ex-teacher.

"No, I don't think so. Well, okay then. Sai, Rin, and Obito, come with me! We're going to go and get briefed on our first mission," said Minato cheerfully as he started to march them off to the Hokage tower with enthusiasm.

"You know, as much as I admire the guy, I _so _do not envy them," said Naruto in disbelief as his idol/father was actually _excited_ about D-rank missions.

Hell, even to _pretend_ to be excited about them was like a crime against humanity or something. Naruto sighed. He still couldn't believe that he had to take these damn things _again_.

**00000000**-**one week later**-**00000000**

"DAMN IT!" Naruto yelled in frustration as he pulled on the leash of a huge dog. Why did these things never obey him? Hell, he was older now and more powerful, so shouldn't they naturally be in awe of his awesome powers? Naruto looked up at the path in front of him and paled.

"NOT AGAIN! STOP! YEILD! SIT, DAMN IT!" yelled Naruto frantically as the pooch began to make his way towards the field mine.

"NOW I KNOW WHERE YOUR DAMN KIDS GOT IT FROM!" Naruto continued to yell as he began to pull as hard as he could in the opposite direction.

Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura, and Tenzo sighed as they watched the dog enter the field of mines.

**BOOM! **

"As much as he has improved, he never really changes does he?" Kakashi stated while he leaned against a tree.

"Hn," grunted Sasuke as he started walking again with his own smaller and more obediant dog.

"I'm not sure whether or not that's a good thing or a bad thing," Sakura sighed as she began to follow Sasuke.

**00000000-With Obito, Rin, and Sai-00000000**

"Damn D-ranks, damn garbage, damn river...damn..." grumbled Obito as he viciously stabbed garbage and roughly put it into the bag he was using to clean up the river side.

Rin rolled her eyes as she went about her job more quietly.

Sai couldn't for the life of him figure out why Obito was complaining so much. A mission was a mission, right? No matter what the rank.

'_Well...Naruto was complaining a lot like this too...maybe I could be friends with Obito like I am with Naruto if they're so similar?_' thought Sai as he calmly picked up his own trash. '_Now what did "Misaki's Guide to Understanding Your Man" say again? Oh yeah, when you want to communicate with your man when he's upset it's a good idea to flatter him and make him feel better.'_

_Hmmm..._

"Obito-kun," called Sai. Obito looked up and blinked in suprise as the new member of his team addressed him.

"Ummm...what?" he nervously asked the weird smiling boy.

"I wouldn't worry, although you have a lot of similarities with Naruto-kun I'm sure that your dick is bigger," Sai said with a smile.

'_There. That was a great compliment. I'm sure he feels better now.'_

Obito had no idea what to say. As soon as the sentence ended he was sure that his brain had short wired. In the meantime his body decided to take a vacation as his mouth went slack and he dropped his bag and trash-picking stick. Rin and Kakashi were in similar situations, and although Kakashi had no bag to drop, he was equally mortified for his teammate as he sat at the base a tree next to the river. Minato was unfortunate enough to have been sitting _in_ a tree...although not for very long.

"Uh..." Obito couldn't quite get his brain back into gear. Sai gave him another smile and continued to work.

Five...

Four...

Three...

Two...

"WHAT?"

**00000000**-**The Day before the Chuunin Exams**-**00000000**

Naruto clenched and unclenched his fist as he stood in front of the Kakashi with his teammates and Minato's team. Tomorrow was the big day and they had all gathered here together for the first time in 2 weeks to receive the papers that would get them into the Chuunin exam. Kakashi was standing with his ever present Icha Icha book in hand and Minato was next to him smiling and looking up at the sky.

The mini-Kakashi was on a mission with another team until tomorrow and Tenzo had decided to help the Hokage research today, seeing as nothing would happen until tomorrow and the only thing that the proctors could do now was wait until the exam started. As a few minutes passed Naruto began to twitch slightly. What the hell were they waiting for already? Was this some kind of weird test? Did they think that he didn't have enough patience to be a ninja? Was that it? What is Kakashi-

"Calm down, Naruto. Your eyebrow is going a little haywire there," said Kakashi while not taking his eyes off of his book. Naruto eyebrow twitched a little more, although more out of annoyance than anxiety.

"Well, would you get on with it already? We've been standing here forever," said Naruto crossly. Kakashi looked up from his book and gave him a smile.

"Hmmm, I guess so. Although I just got to my favorite part and-" Kakashi began when Sakura cut him off.

"Sensei! We really don't need to hear about your stupid book. Just give us the damn papers so that we can fill them out and go take the test tomorrow," said Sakura while crossing her arms and looking at her sensei sternly. Kakashi chuckled and put his book back into one of his pouches.

"Alright then," he said as he pulled the papers out of one of his pockets.

He held them in front of his team and said, "Although if you're not sure, you should tell me now. The chuunin exams isn't for the faint of heart and-" Kakashi was cut off once more.

"We know sensei!" all of them (including Sasuke) yelled as they grabbed their admission papers. Kakashi chuckled while shoving his hands into his pockets as he began to walk off. He gave Minato a nod and the future Hokage nodded back. Minato sighed and pulled his own team's paperwork out of his pocket.

"The same goes for you guys. If you don't feel up to this test then you shouldn't take it. What's it gonna be?" he said seriously as he held the papers in front of them. Obito scoffed and took his own paper.

"Sensei we've been training for the past two weeks for this and I've had to endure countless boring D-ranks with _this_ guy," Obito gestured towards Sai. "to take this test. I'm not going to back out now."

Minato smiled as he heard these words.

"Alright, but remember Obito, don't. be. late. The test starts at 9:00 AM, okay?" Minato informed him.

Obito nodded and smiled at his sensei as he put the form in his pocket and walked off to the Uchiha compund with Sasuke trailing behind him. When they were gone Sakura looked at Minato curiously.

"Ano...Mianto-san?" Sakura said hesitantly. Minato looked at her and hmm'd.

"Why did you tell Obito that the test starts at 9:00 AM? Doesn't it start at 11:30?" Sakura asked. Minato smiled at her and nodded.

"Yeah it does. But Obito doesn't know that and I figured that this would be the best way for him to get there on time," said Minato cheerfully. Sakura smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Now, what about you, Rin and Sai? What are you going to do?" asked Minato as he held out the remaining two forms.

Sai wordlessly took the form and walked off. Minato sweatdropped as he watched the young man leave.

'_There is something seriously wrong with that kid,'_ he thought. Rin took hers as well and smiled back at her sensei.

"I agree with Obito, sensei. We've been training for the exam for a long time and I don't think I would be able to forgive myself if I gave up now," she said with confidence in her eyes. Minato nodded at her proudly and waved her off as both she and Sakura left.

"Well, I'm glad that they're so determined. Ready to go Naruto-kun?" said Minato as he turned to the other blonde. Naruto nodded and they walked down the path after the girls to go home.

00000000-**With Naruto and Minato**-00000000

Naruto slurped up his ramen as he looked at the man in front of him. The future fourth hokage, his father, was looking over what looked like very complicated seals. Even after two weeks of living with the man he still couldn't believe that he was actually _living_ with his father, his idol, the greatest hokage of Konoha. It still seemed surreal. And not only that, but he had also been teaching him how to actually do sealing! Learning from a seal master? It only made it more surreal when Minato had told him he had a natural talent for it. Jiraiya had never wanted to teach him and always told him that with his attention span he was more likely to blow himself _and _Konoha up than actually get something accomplished.

_'Well, what did that old pervert know anyways?_' thought Naruto somberly as he finished up his ramen, thinking fondly of his old master.

Then he asked Minato if he would explain to him what he was working on. When Minato smiled and motioned for him to come sit next to him, he felt a warmth build up in his chest.

Was this what it was like to truly have a family?

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_*****Warning: Copious amounts of unedited chapters in the story past this point. Unless I say that it's been edited in the beginning. You have been warned.**_

_**Argh, the newest manga chapters are really screwing with my previous work. Damn you, Kishimoto!**_


	17. Let the Chunin Exams Begin!

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.**_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

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Naruto woke up slowly the next morning and looked out the window at the quiet village. So...today was _the_ day. The day where...wait, Naruto began to scratch his head. What was today? Something important should be happening...

'Damn it! What's happening today!' Naruto thought as he began to abuse his head to try and get the thoughts out. Then suddenly it hit him and Naruto smiled.

"That's right! Today's the day of the chunin exam!" he said happily to thin air while crossing his arms as he nodded his head. He then turned to look at the clock. Hmm...it's 11:17...

...

"DAMNIT! WHY DIDN'T HE WAKE ME UP!" Naruto shouted as he hurried to get ready.

He only had thirteen minutes to get dressed and get to the academy for the first part of the test. He just couldn't be late for the first part of the test. He would probably never hear the end of it from everyone else and Sakura would _kill _him. God only knew what Sasuke might do...

When Naruto finished dressing he quickly tugged his sandals on and grabbed his hitai-ate as he ran out the door. He was about halfway to the academy and had only just finished tieing in his forehead protector when he spotted someone else rushing towards the academy. The person, as Naruto got closer, turned out to be an extremely disheveled Obito attempting to put his jacket and goggles on (at the same time) while running at top speed. Naruto chuckled and effortlessly sped up so that he was running right next to the small Uchiha.

"Great morning, isn't it?" Naruto asked cheerfully as he gave Obito his widest grin.

The younger boy jumped slightly and almost lost his grip on his goggles as he was currently trying to strap them onto his head.

"Huh?" was the intelligent reply he received. Not to mention the priceless expression of shock on the boy's face.

Naruto chuckled as he tried to imagine what Sasuke would look like with the same expression. Unfortunately for him, Naruto's imagination, or anyone's for that matter, was not that great.

"I said 'great morning, isn't it?'" Naruto repeated in his borderline obnoxiously cheerful voice.

"U-uh...yeah. Um, b-boss?" Obito stuttered. Naruto hmmed his encouragement for him to continue.

"Uh, How come- I mean, what are you doing here? Didn't the test start at nine? It's not over already is it? Please don't tell me it's too late!" Obito said frantically as he unconsciously sped up. Naruto laughed a bit as he increased his own speed to keep up.

"Don't worry about it. Minato told you that it started at nine so that you wouldn't be late for the test. Although we only have-" Naruto looked at his watch. "-about 5 minutes now to get there."

Obito was in the process of catching flies with his mouth when Naruto interrupted whatever he might have said in response.

"I know, I know, but think of it this way; at least your not really late!" Naruto said giving Obito a thumbs up, 'nice guy' style.

"Let's hurry up though or else we actually will be."

It took Naruto and Obito 2 minutes to get to the academy building and another minute to get to the correct door. They knew that they were at the right door due to the fact that their team mates were currently pacing outside it.

"Naruto!" Sakura screamed at the blonde before she grabbed him and started shaking him.

"What's wrong with you! We thought Obito would be late, but I thought you had better sense by now you idiot! You weren't even late the first time!"

"Yeah!" Rin said as she grabbed Obito and instead of shaking him started to threaten him under her breath. "You had better at least have your application with you. We only have a couple minutes to get in there!"

Obito nervously nodded his head and showed her his application papers with shaking hands.

"Good," Rin said shortly.

"And you Naruto?" Sakura said in a low threatening voice to the dizzy Naruto.

"Uh-uh-uh...yeah..."Naruto said in a shaky voice as he reached into his pocket to pull out his own application.

"Okay then," Sakura said as she released the blonde.

"Now let's all get in there before we really are late."

Sasuke 'hnned' as he grabbed Naruto's elbow and dragged him through the door with Sakura following them closely.

Sai smiled as he watched team seven go through the door and then turned the smile to his teammates. They froze once the amazingly fake smile was focused towards them.

"Mini-hag, mini-dickless wonder. We should probably get in there as well," Sai informed them as walked through the door.

Once again, Rin and Obito were left in the devastating wake that was simply Sai's presence (and occasional words). After a few moments of their jaws moving up and down like gaping fish they finally came to their senses and realized that they would be considered late if they waited any longer and quickly walked through the door that led to the first part of the chunin exam.

**00000000**-**Inside the classroom-00000000**

"All right you ninja wanna-bes! Shut up and pay attention!" shouted an irate kunoichi at the front of the classroom.

"My name is Misato Kunieda, proctor for the first test of the Chunin Exam, and all of you _will_ follow _all_ of the rules that I make. Any failure to comply and you will immediately be removed from the room and you will not be able to become a chunin until you are well into your fifties. Do I make my self clear?" Misato demanded. "This is a written test and there are only three rules. Simple enough maggots?"

Misato was a young woman in her mid-twenties with straight black hair pulled back into a pony-tail that draped across her shoulder. She stood at about 165 cm and had a thin body that was slightly overwhelmed by the jounin vest she had on and the sleeveless turtle neck that that she was wearing underneath.

After she was sure that she had there attention she turned to the chalkboard behind her and picked up a piece of chalk.

"The first rule is this! This test is based on a point reduction system and you're all starting off with 10 points. This test has ten questions and for every question you get wrong one point is taken off," Misato said as she wrote all of this down on the board.

"The second rule is that this test will pass or fail teams based on the total score of all three members. And finally the third rule is that if you are caught cheating by any of the sentinels positioned around the room, two points will be taken off of that person or persons score. Therefore if you are caught five times you will receive an automatic zero without your papers ever having been graded and you'll be asked to leave the classroom."

At this statement many groans were heard through out the crowd of aspiring chunin. After Misato finished writing the rules on the board she turned around and banged the chalk against the board.

"Shut up! If anyone is stupid enough to be caught cheating doesn't deserve to be here! If you little rat bastards want to call yourselves shinobi than show us what you can do!" Misato finished. "Oh! And I almost forgot to mention..." she gave them all a grin that sent shivers down their spines. "if any candidate should get a zero and fail the test than the rest of his team will fail with them!"

She began to laugh maliciously.

'_Geez_,' thought Naruto from his spot in the room. _'This lady is almost like a cross between that psycho lady, Anko, and that weirdo Ibiki. If we were in the future instead of the past I'd say this was their love child or something' _

Naruto paled at the thought.

'_We're all doomed...'_

"Anyway, you _will_ line up in an orderly fashion and hand in your applications to receive one of these" At this Misato held up a square card with the number one on it.

"This will tell you where to sit. Once everyone is seated we will hand out the test and the first part of this exam will begin!"

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_*****Warning: Copious amounts of unedited chapters in the story past this point. Unless I say that it's been edited in the beginning. You have been warned.**_


	18. Exam Number One

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.**_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

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_'Damn it! Why are these questions so hard?' _Obito thought as he watched Rin happily jot answers onto her paper. He started sweating and looked down at the first question again.

'_What does this stuff mean!' _Obito began to freak out as he tried to remember what the hell the square root of 40 was and how it might apply to throwing kunai at Rock ninja.

'_When would I ever have to know this?' _

Obito resisted the urge to start banging his head against the table and looked for his other teammate. He saw Sai a couple of rows down from him and it looked like he had taken out his ink set.

'_What's that weirdo doing?'_ Obito thought, puzzled. '_Why would he need his ink? They gave us pencils.'_

He looked down at his own standard issue pencil that had been given out with the test. He looked up again to see that Sai had finished writing and was now discreetly making hand signs under his desk.

'_What is he...?'_

Obito had to choke back a gasp when he was able to make out a thin line of ink making its way towards him. If he hadn't been an Uchiha he probably wouldn't have been able to spot it. Despite not having the Sharingan, he still had a large number of genetic perks due to his bloodline. Superior eye sight was one example.

Obito quickly began tapping his paper with the pencil in his hand thoughtfully as he discreetly followed the ink's path while he pretended to concentrate on his paper.

When the ink finally made his way to him, he stared in silent shock as the ink began to take shape and form into the answers. There they all were!

'_What the hell?'_ Obito thought as he looked at question 3. _' How on earth does that work out to 8?'_

Then the ink started forming a message at the bottom of the test. Obito narrowed his eyes as the note became clearer.

_Here are the answers, stupid. _

_Don't worry, you're dick is still bigger than Naruto's! ^.^_

Obito began gritting his teeth as he began to furiously scribble out the 'supportive note' left by his new team member while glaring daggers at his back.

'_I HATE THIS GUY!'_

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Naruto tapped his pencil against the paper as he read through the questions again. Luckily for him he could actually understand at least some of the questions this time around.

'_I guess spending all that time studying under ero-sennin is good for some things,' _thought Naruto with a soft smile as he pictured his late mentor.

Half of him was terrified that he might show up now and blow their cover story, but the other half desperately wanted him to come just so that he could see him one last time...

Naruto sighed and shook his head to clear them of their depressing thoughts. He picked up his head to look at his other two team mates and smiled when he saw that they were all ready done and relaxing in their chairs as they watched the other chunin wanna-be's struggling to cheat on their tests.

Naruto filled in the answers he did know, even though it wasn't entirely necessary, and discreetly turned to see how Sai and his team were doing. He had to smother a laugh when he saw Obito look down to read what message Sai had left him with that creepy ink jutsu of his.

'_Glad to know Sai is picking on some else besides me now,'_ thought Naruto in relief, but with a slight amount of pity for the young Uchiha. He chuckled when Obito calmed down and looked around the rest of the room in curiosity to see who the competition was this year.

'_This is going to be weird'_ thought Naruto. '_We're fighting guys we probably know as our elders and not as our peers.'_

When he caught sight of a young-looking Genma, he sighed.

'_Guess we're going to have to be extra careful,' _he thought thinking of all the ways this exam could go wrong if they were to meet/fight all the future jounin and chunin in the room.

'_I wonder if the others have thought of the same thing,'_ his train of thought continued as he yawned and looked at the clock. Then he groaned and slumped down further into his chair.

There was still 30 minutes left!

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Misato Kunieda was irritated and it showed. She tapped some extra test papers on the desk that she currently had her feet propped up on as she watched the genin attempt to cheat on their exams.

"Numbers 37, 25, and 102 are disqualified!" she yelled as she threw kunai onto their desks. She smirked as they jumped and gave her incredulous looks.

"Don't even think about complaining maggots! Just get your teammates and get out!" Misato grinned internally when the cries of protests died on their lips and they all scurried out the front door.

Misato leaned back in her chair and smugly observed the rest of the shaken genin as they tried to concentrate on their exams. Well, they were trying to concentrate on_ cheating _on their exams, but...it was practically the same thing anyway.

'_Let's see... who's not a maggot,'_ Misato thought curiously as she scanned the room and tried to look for a genin or two that weren't completely hopeless.

"Hmmm..."she hummed when her eyes landed on number 45...Sai.

'_What? No family name?'_ she thought curiously and looked closely at the odd ninja. She saw him take out his own ink set and begin the test. Misato narrowed his eyes and watched him more closely.

'_It's not against the rules to use your own writing tools, but what is he planning?'_ she thought.

She was slightly impressed as he casually began to make seals rather discreetly under the desk. If she hadn't been watching him as closely as she was she might of missed the movements in his arms. She was even more impressed when the ink suddenly disappeared off of the paper.

'_What did he do and how did he do it?'_ she thought as she watched him rewrite his answers.

She looked around the room and found his two team mates. The girl seemed to be fine on her own, but the boy...an Uchiha, seemed to be glaring daggers at his team mate while he scribbled something out on his paper vigorously. Misato hummed a little in understanding.

'_He must have transferred the answers to the Uchiha's papers somehow. And left him a little love note as well'_ she thought wryly.

Misato then turned her attention towards the other three genin that had just arrived in Konoha. They all seemed to have had an easy time with the test and were now observing the competition. Misato watched the blonde one curiously. If she was honest with herself, the blonde looked like an idiot. Although he did have an uncanny resemblance to the yellow flash and if she were to continue being honest with herself, she would have to admit that he looked like a bit of an idiot too sometimes...

'_I guess we'll have to watch that team closely'_ she thought contemplatively.

"Number's 67 and 12! You're out of here!" she yelled suddenly as she flung some kunai in their direction.

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Rin fidgeted nervously as she watched the clock.

'_Only one more minute'_ she thought and she looked at her other team mates.

Sai seemed to be doodling on the test paper in front of him, but Rin wasn't really worried about him since he was technically a chunin already. She turned her attention towards Obito and sweatdropped.

Obito was napping with his head down on his desk and it looked like their was drool spilling out of his mouth as well. She narrowed her eyes at the lazy genin and had to hold back the sudden urge she felt to hit him and wake him up.

She noticed that Sakura and her team had finished long ago, but then again they had already passed the exam once before too. Although Sakura had confided in her the night before that she had no problem with this part of the exam the first time she took it either. Rin thought of Sakura fondly. It was just like having an older sister really. Not only did she understand how to handle her male team mates, but she was a medic-nin! One that had trained under Lady Tsunade at that!

'_I want to be just like her!'_ Rin thought with a happy smile. '_But...it would be even better if Kakashi was in my future too...'_

She was startled out of her thoughts when the proctor, Misato, slammed a book on her desk to get their attention.

"All right listen up!" yelled Misato. Even Obito gave a quiet snort and woke up at the sound of the loud bang. "For those of you who are left here it's time for the last question!"

"Although I have to warn you," she began again. "Any of you who don't want to answer the last question should say so and leave now. If you do, you and your team mates must leave the testing area and will not be allowed to continue taking the Chunnin exams."

At this statement, cries of outrage and confusion came from all areas of the room.

"Why would we do that!" yelled one kid from the back. Rin felt like questioning the statement as well.

"We've all worked so hard to get here," Rin said while standing up a little. "Why would we give up now?"

Rin sat back down in fear when the proctor turned and gave her a particularly malicious grin.

"You'd give up because...," Misato began pausing a little to draw out the suspense, "if you answer this question wrong you'll never be able to take the chuunin exams again and you'll be forced to be a genin FOREVER!"

She ended dramatically and began to laugh wildly. Several of the chunin sentinals sweatdropped as they watched their leader prove that she was a bit mentally unstable...again.

"So you better be sure," Misato continued when she had calmed down and stared into the eyes of the frightened children (besides Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Sai, of course, since they knew what was coming. Well, Sai was really just wondering what was so funny and if he should laugh too... )

Rin began to sweat as she looked around the room. Some people immediately raised their hands and dismissed themselves.

'_What should I do?'_ she thought. '_I don't want to be a genin forever!'_

Rin looked to her left to see how Obito was reacting. He looked nervous too, but when he turned his head and made eye contact with her, he gave her a shaky smile and a thumbs up. Rin returned the smile, feeling slightly better with his reassurance. They could do this.

After a few minutes and everyone that looked like they were going to raise their hand did, Misato gave the room one last sweep and nodded.

"All right maggots!" she began. "Time for the last question..." The room held it's breath.

"Pysch!" Misato said and she began laughing at them again. The genin in the room looked confused and some whispered a few choice words for the crazy proctor under their breaths.

"There is no last question," she told them once she had caught her breath again.

"The purpose of the 'last question' was to test whether or not you had the resolve to stick with the test and also to trust your team mates. A true ninja must be confident in his abilities and in the abilities of his team. Without it you might as well sign their death warrants. Do you understand?" she asked them sternly.

The group simply nodded dumbly as they counted their blessings.

"All right then! Get out of here! Show up at Area 44 at 1400 hours. The next proctor will be waiting there to start the second part of the exam. If you are late you will be disqualified!" Misato yelled and the remaining genin quickly got up and made their way out the door.

_Part One the Chunnin exam was complete._

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_*****Warning: Copious amounts of unedited chapters in the story past this point. Unless I say that it's been edited in the beginning. You have been warned.**_


	19. The Forest of Death

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.**_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

_**Extra Note: Blatant copying from the manga in this chapter. I like to make my stories as accurate as possible. **_

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"I do not regret the things that I have done but the things I did not do," Naruto said tonelessly with a deadpan face as he reached the dreaded area 44, otherwise known as the Forest of Death. Capital Letters. That serious.

"What are you going on about, moron?" Sasuke said with an eyebrow raised as he walked next to his blonde teammate.

Naruto just mumbled some curses under his breath and shot the Uchiha an annoyed glare. Sakura sighed from the other side of the blonde.

"Stop it you two," she said distractedly as she looked around. "Do you guys see Rin and her team anywhere?"

Naruto shook his head and put his hands in his pockets. Sasuke shook his head too, but opted to cross in arms since he would die before copying his idiotic friend. Sakura gave an aggravated sigh at their apparent uselessness.

"I want to wish them luck before they started, I mean it's not like they've done this before," Sakura said while anxiously looking around.

"Sakura, I'm sure they'll be fine," Naruto said. "I mean they're probably more prepared then we were at that age."

"I know," Sakura said reluctantly. "But still..."

"Sakura, don't worry. Besides they have Sai with them and he's not completely useless," Sasuke said in short clipped tones.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Sakura sighed and she stopped actively searching, although she was still watching the crowd closely.

"Yeah, I'm not worried about them," Naruto said as he took his hands out of his pockets to put behind his head while looking at the forest intently. "But I am kinda curious about who our proctor is gonna be. I hope they're nothing like that crazy dango lady."

"Don't even joke about things like that Naruto," Sakura said with a small shudder. "You're not the one who had to be forced into weapons training with her when your master was busy."

At that statement even Sasuke went a little green as he thought of the psychotic kunai-happy kunoichi.

"Yeah, well..." Naruto sighed. "I hope that whoever it is just hurries up."

"What was that Naruto-kun?" said a creepily familiar voice from behind the three 'genin'.

"Agughgh!" Naruto shouted before covering his head in fear and turning to look at who had snuck up on him.

"T-Ta-Taicho!" Sakura said shakily as she fought to compose herself. Sasuke simply recrossed his arms and gave the sheepish-looking plate-faced man in front of them a dark look.

"Sorry, sorry," Tenzo apologized half-heartedly.

"Ugh," Naruto said with a moody look on his face as he looked at their team captain.

"What are you doing here anyway?" he asked rudely.

His two teammates looked at him as well, clearly expecting an answer from a man who was supposedly working on finding a way back home with the Hokage. At this Tenzo smirked.

"Well, it seems the proctor for the second part of the chunin exams has arrived," Tenzo said as his smirk grew into an out right grin as he puffed himself up a little.

"Really?" Naruto yelled. "Where is he?"

He then began to look around, his head flying wildly, a long with Sasuke and Sakura, although the latter two at a less frantic and neck cracking pace. Tenzo slumped a bit and sweatdropped as he raised his hand and waved it in front of the trio to get their attention.

"Uh, guys?" Tenzo said wearily. They stopped their search of the crowd to look at him curiously.

"_I'm _the proctor."

Naruto's mouth opened up into a perfect 'o' of shock along with Sakura while Sasuke was shocked out of his usual cold attitude to stare at the anbu captain with wide eyes.

"Really, Yamato-taicho?" Sakura asked in disbelief. Tenzo coughed into his hand and straightened his posture as he nodded his reply.

"Yeah, apparently the guy who normally does it got injured while doing his patrol of the forest and they needed someone to fill in last minute. I had mentioned to the hokage that I 'work well' with forests and he asked me if I could fill in for the next few days," Tenzo explained.

"So when you're done with this you'll be going back to researching then," Sasuke asked having all ready put his uncaring air back on and was now staring down Tenzo with a glare that said "I-really-don't-want-to-be-stuck-here-any-longer-than-I-have-to-so-you-better-get-researching"

"Yeah," Tenzo said with a chuckle as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I'll be hitting the books again as soon as this is done, so don't worry. Besides, since Minato and Kakashi, the senior one, have nothing to do for the next few days, they'll be taking my place. It probably works out better that way anyway since the Hokage as two helpers instead of one."

Sasuke and his two team mates looked appeased at this.

"Well, I guess I should start the exam soon," Tenzo said while looking at his watch. "I'll see you guys later, okay?"

They nodded and waved as Tenzo began to work his way to the front of the crowd to the table that was placed in front of one of the forest gates.

"Can I have everyone's attention?" Tenzo called out to the crowd as he finally made his way to the very front of the crowd of genins. Tenzo stood facing all of them until they had quieted down and focused their attention on him fully.

"Welcome to the stage for the second test, practice arena 44! Also known as "The Forest of Death"!" Tenzo shouted out to the crowd.

"My name is Tenzo and I'll be your proctor until the end of this part of the exam. However, before we start the test there's something we need to pass out," Tenzo motioned for the two chunin helpers standing by the table to start handing out the papers in their hands.

"Unlike in the first exam, there will be deaths," Tenzo warned, his voice dropping an octave to show how serious he was. Even though he was no longer shouting, his voice carried easily throughout the crowd.

"By signing these forms you are saying that you understand that you were warned that death and/or dismemberment is highly probable in this stage of the test and that you agreed to take it anyway. Basically, this protects me legally should you or your family decide to sue me if anything were to happen to you." Tenzo smiled at them. It wasn't returned. Tenzo coughed into his hand a little awkwardly before continuing.

"While I'm explaining the second test, you can read, then fill them out and when you're done, hand them in at the desk with your team. You won't be considered checked in until all three members of your team hands this form in. Any of you can leave at any time, but if you don't have a full team, then you may not compete. Choose wisely," Tenzo warned.

"Now, I'll explain the second test," Tenzo began.

"Put simply, you will attempt the ultimate survival trial. First I'll explain the area in which it will take place," he said as he pulled a map out of one of the pockets on his vest.

"Around practice area 44 are 44 locked gates. There's a forest, a river, and then a tower in the center. From the gates to the tower is about 10 km. During your trial in here, you will be asked to complete a certain task using many weapons and jutsu, you will compete in a no rules scroll battle," Tenzo said darkly as he held what was supposedly one of the scrolls in his hand.

"You will fight over these two scrolls, the 'heaven'," Tenzo held up a second scroll "and the 'earth' scrolls. There are 78 people here, meaning 26 teams. Half of you will get the heaven scroll while the other half will get the earth scroll." Tenzo said while gesturing with the scrolls in his hand.

"To pass this test your team must make it to the tower with both scrolls. This means that 13 teams will without a doubt fail," Tenzo paused ominously as he let this sink in.

"But there's a time limit. This second test will last 120 hours, exactly 5 days"

"Five days!" An older version of Chouji shouted from the crowd.

"What about dinner!" he said fretfully as his two team mates (an older version of Shikamaru and the male version of Ino). Tenzo chuckled as he shook his head.

"You're on your own. The forest is full of food. Just watch out for the man-eating beasts, poisonous insects, and the poisonous plants..." their proctor trailed off with an amused look on his face.

"Please keep in mind that as the days go on, the distance to the goal will become farther, and the time to rest will become shorter. Not only that, but the area will be crawling with enemies, you won't get much sleep. So like we've been saying, not only will most of you fail, but you'll also probably die. Hence, the legalities," Tenzo said, still seemingly amused.

"Geez," Sakura whispered to her two team mates. "I didn't know that taicho was so sadistic."

Naruto and Sasuke snickered as they looked at the genin around them that looked scared stiff. This was definitely better the second time around.

"Now, I'll talk about what will disqualify you. First, those that don't make it to the tower with both scrolls within the time limit will be disqualified from entering the final test. Secondly, those who lose a teammate or those whose teammate was killed will also be disqualified. I'll also mention that there is no quitting in the middle, if you agree to participate you will be in the forest for five days. And lastly, you must not look inside the scroll until you make it to the tower. For anyone who does, well... let's just leave that as a surprise," Tenzo grinned at them.

"A chunin will be asked to handle classified information, so this is to test your trustworthiness. Now that's it for explanations. Go and exchange the three forms for your scroll, then choose a gate to get ready for the start."

"Oh and...a final word of advice," Tenzo said and the genin focused on him again. Tenzo gave them a devilish smirk.

"Don't die"

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_*****Warning: Copious amounts of unedited chapters in the story past this point. Unless I say that it's been edited in the beginning. You have been warned.**_


	20. The Contestants

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.**_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

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_Gate 32_

Obito gulped as he stared up at gate in front of him. The heat that had been comforting these past few weeks of summer had turned oppressive and the buzzing and whirring of insects that had been a pleasant background only hours before now seemed to be driving him insane. What was he doing here? Obito felt his palms beginning to sweat. He didn't even have the sharingan yet! He was going to die. Obito felt his insides churn and his face twist when the thought finally sunk in. He was going to die!

He began to breath heavily and looked around him. Rin and Sai both seemed to be in their own little worlds and the instructor was watching his watch impatiently while holding the lock on the gate.

'_Well,' Obito_ thought._ 'If I am going to die then I'd rather be with Rin than Kakashi. God knows that I don't want that bastard to be the last thing to see before I die. He'll probably mock me or something.'_

Obito made a face at the thought. Yeah, whenever his time came that bastard would be nowhere near him.

'_Wait...,'_ Obito's eyes widened as he came to a realization. '_Rin is with me! I...I can't die!'_

He looked at the kind medic-nin.

'_I can't leave her alone with the freak!' _

He shot a quick look at Sai who had a creepy smile on his face that seemed to make even the chunin with them a little nervous.

'_All right then!'_ Obito thought with a new determination set into his eyes. '_I can't die! And... I can't lose to Naruto's team either!'_

He thought with a grin. This caught his teammates attention and he smiled at them and gave them a thumbs up. Rin smiled weakly back and Sai quirked his head and gave a slightly more real looking smile, albeit an awkward one.

They could do this.

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_Gate 12_

Naruto sighed as his team waited by their gate. Sakura and Sasuke looked bored as well and they were rechecking their supplies together for what seemed like the thousandth time. The chunin guard seemed puzzled at their obvious lack of worry and wondered why they weren't freaked out to be going into area 44 aka 'The Forest of Death'...Death! Capital letters!

_'Kids these days_,' the instructor thought with a scowl. Obviously the new guy wasn't doing his job properly.

"Can you believe that we have gate 12 again?" Sakura said, breaking the silence seeing that she and Sasuke had confirmed once again that between the three of them they had 60 kunai, 120 shiruken, 30 smoke bombs, 50 yards of wire, 6 packs of exploding tags, 3 standard pouches of soldier pills, 100 senbon needles, 1 medic kit (belonging to Sakura), 1 chokuto (belonging to Sasuke), and several poisons that each of them were partial to. Not to mention the miscellaneous objects that they each carried around on them that they felt wasn't worth mentioning, but was probably useful in a fight too.

"Hn," Sasuke finally acknowledged Sakura's statement. Naruto looked up at the gate and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Really?" Naruto asked curiously, but in way that made it obvious he really didn't expect an answer. "I didn't really pay any attention to it the last time we were here."

Sasuke scoffed.

"We could have told you that, dobe," Sasuke said. Naruto scowled at his friend, but Sasuke continued.

"I'm wondering if we should even bother with a password this time around. It seems like it would be more trouble then it's worth." Sakura giggled and spoke before Naruto say anything.

"I think this time we could just ask something that no one, but ourselves would know if we got separated. That'll be a lot easier," Sakura said smiling at the two of them. Both Sasuke and Naruto blinked in surprise at the suggestion and then looked at each other.

"That...sounds like a good idea," Naruto said to Sasuke. Sasuke simply huffed and nodded his approval.

"All right then," Sakura said with a note of finality and resigned herself to staring at the nervous looking chunin instructor until the test began.

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_Gate 29_

Shikaku sighed as he looked up at his team's gate. This would be the second time that his team would be taking the test together and he figured that this time around there wouldn't be as many problems. They had been training together in their Ino-Shika-Chou style (making him lose a lot of naptime, but who said he couldn't sacrifice?) and now they had it down to a science.

'_Still...,'_ Shikaku thought. '_How troublesome...'_

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_Gate 41_

Chewing on a senbon and watching the two kids on his team squabble was only mildly amusing to the 13 year-old genin with light brown hair that framed both sides of his face and came past his chin. His last two teammates had passed the year before and now he was stuck with these two...what were their names again? The genin scratched his bandana covered head as he tried to think. Oh...yeah, Kamizuki Izumo and Hagane Kotetsu.

Well, the two kids didn't look like much he had to admit. In his mind he was cursing his two former teammates, Namiashi Raido and Gekko Hayate, and he promised himself to get through this as soon as possible, become a chunin, and beat the crap out of them.

'_Until then...,'_ Shiranui Genma sighed and then sweatdropped as he watched his two partners slap each other. '_What a drag...'_

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_Gate 4_

"Yosh! This is the ultimate test of the springtime of our youth! Can you not feel the vigorous and flowing energy of the forest!" said a weird little boy with a bowl cut and fuzzy brows who was wearing green spandex.

"And I, Might Guy, shall be one step closer to defeating my eternal rival the one and only son of white fang and-" he rambled on and on. It scared the instructor quite a bit and he tried to avert his eyes as much as possible while willing the clock on his watch to move faster.

Asuma and Kurenai sighed as they watched their...'energetic' team mate pump himself up for the test. You wouldn't know it by looking at him, but he was one of the most advanced ninja here, being the same age as Hatake Kakashi and an expert in martial arts. But still...

"I'm not sure if I can spend 5 days in the forest with him, Sarutobi-kun," Kurenai whispered to the tall teenager next to her.

Asuma blushed a little, but he fought it down while he nodded and sighed. He was going to kill his old man for persuading him to take the damn test this year. Not to mention he stuck him with this weirdo.

Although... having Yuuhi Kurenai on his team...he looked down at the cute brunette with red eyes that was subconsciously leaning closer to him to get away from their more eccentric teammate.

Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing after all...

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_Gate 20_

Three Rock ninja stood quietly in front of their gate while studying the Konoha instructor in front of them with a slightly oppressive atmosphere. The instructor himself was definitely wary. Usually participants were chatty or nervous, at the very least they interacted with each other, but these kids...

'_I know the Hokage always preaches tolerance and open-mindedness, but...' _the instructor thought as he watched the middle genin who was much more intimidating than the other two. The tall, burly, and tanned teen gave him a rather malevolent smirk.

'_Something isn't right...,' _he thought, but his train of thought was interrupted when the second hand hit the twelve. As soon as he opened up the gate the three rock ninja shot through it like bats out of hell...or more accurately bats _into _hell.

One thing for sure was that the instructor felt uncommonly sorry for the genin that went against those three. They were definitely strong opponents.

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'_Finally...' _thought Akan, the leader of the Rock genin. '_Our kage told us what we must accomplish, but I can't stand waiting.'_

He sneered when he thought of the Konoha nins. Weaklings...all of them. He looked at his two teammates, Kuya, a redheaded female who would have been rather pretty if it wasn't for the nasty look on her face, and Misumi, a male with hair the color of ash who had a rather wicked way with a blade. They both looked at him and gave him smirks.

'_This is going to be fun,'_ Akan thought and he picked up the pace while leading his team deeper into the forest.

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Obito walked next to Rin and Sai as they struggled through the roots and plant life on the forest floor. They had discussed it a little and they all agreed that most people would immediately take to the trees. It would be best to take cover in the foliage instead up leaping about out in the open.

"Argh," Obito yelled for the hundredth time as he slapped his neck to kill the pesky bugs that seemed to want to suck the life out of him. Rin giggled a little, but held a finger to her lips to warn him to keep quiet. Sai gave him a warning smile (if that was possible) and pointed to a clearing up ahead.

"I sense a group up ahead," he said quietly. "I'm not too sure about their power level though. Do you want to engage them? If we don't they may come after us and that might alert others to our presence."

Obito grunted as he thought it over. Personally he'd love to get to a clearing just to get away from these damn bugs. Plus if the team was fairly weak and had the right scroll they could make their way to the tower quickly and get out of the forest all together.

"I think it sounds like a good idea," he whispered quickly as he slapped himself again. Rin bit her lip as she looked at the two of them. She really didn't think that they would have to fight so quickly, but...

"Okay, yeah, let's do it," Rin whispered to the older boy while giving him a nod.

Although Sai was kind of creepy, he was dependable and a good leader. She trusted him to lead them through this god forsaken forest and hopefully they would all become chunin while they were at it.

Sai looked at the two of them and then nodded. He then turned and led them into the clearing.

"We were wondering how long you were going to stand there," a slightly cocky voice called out.

When Obito, Sai, and Rin finally made it past the last tree and stepped onto the grassy field they got a good look at their new opponents. Obito's mouth dropped as he saw the three that were standing there and he raised a shaking hand to point at one of them.

'_This cannot be happening to me,'_ Obito thought, disbelieving even in his own mind. '_God can't be that cruel.'_

Apparently He was.

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_*****Warning: Unedited chapters in the story past this point. Unless I say that it's been edited in the beginning. You have been warned.**_


	21. And So It Begins

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.**_

_**Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.**_

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When Obito, Sai, and Rin finally made it past the last tree and stepped onto the grassy field, they got a good look at their new opponents. Obito's mouth dropped as he saw the three that were standing there and he raised a shaking hand to point at one of them.

'_This cannot be happening to me,'_ Obito thought, disbelieving even in his own mind. '_God can't be that cruel.'_

Apparently He was.

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"Fuzzy brows!" Obito screamed at the genin in bright green spandex that was standing with both fists on his hips in front of him. Sai even raised a brow at the spectacle in front of them.

'_Wow,'_ Sai thought. '_He looks just like Buggy except for the eyes...' _Sai decided to smile and practice a little with the team before engaging them in combat.

"Wow, that's a great nickname! You guys must be good friends!" Sai said while beaming at the two younger boys. Obito looked at him like he had three heads and the other two on "fuzzy brows" team turned to the eldest boy with a similar look on their faces. Rin simply looked appropriately embarrassed.

"While I may not agree that it is a great nickname, I do agree that we are all great friends!" Cue wink, smile, sparkle, thumbs up combo. "Being as we are all in the spring time of our youth as well as leaves of the great tree of our village, we are indeed friends no matter what comes between us!" Cue new pose and more sparkle. Oh, and not to mention the crickets.

"Uhhh...riiiight," said Asuma as he rubbed his forehead as if trying to prevent an oncoming headache. Kurenai had a look of disgust frozen onto her face at the weird hip gestures the spandex wearing boy had been making.

"An-Anyway," Asuma tried to pick up where he left off although it wasn't nearly as intimidating as he had hoped it would be and it was all thanks to his freaky team mate.

Gai had better put up a damn good fight.

"Let's get the greetings over with," Asuma demanded. "What kind of scroll do you have?"

Sai looked at the boy in front of him. He knew that Gai was a formidable opponent however he had never had the chance to meet Asuma before he was killed by the Akatsuki.

He looked nothing like the pictures he saw of the man. He was admittedly brawny for a 13 year old, since well developed muscles could clearly be seen from under a partially open dark blue robe style top and the mesh that was underneath. He did have signs of stubble, but Sai had at least 3 years on the kid and in the long run that meant a lot more than have the beginnings of beard growth, no matter what the kind of superiority complex that might give the kid.

So, the only tangible thing that Sai knew about this man was that he had an affinity for wind like Naruto and that he was the Hokage's son and that could mean everything or nothing. Sai's blank eyes finished their study and he forced them to take the shape of half crescents as he put on his most pleasant smile.

"Well, Asuma-kun," Sai began and Asuma growled at being called by his first name by Sai without having given his consent. "We have the heaven scroll. And you?" Asuma smirked at this.

"What luck," Asuma gloated. "We have the earth scroll." Asuma pulled the scroll out of his sleeve to show it to them.

"Lucky us," Sai remarked. "Shall we begin then?" Asuma scoffed a little at the formal speech.

"Oh, by all means after you," he said mockingly. Sai gave another unnervingly wide smile.

"All right!" Obito yelled, startling them all. "You and me fuzzy brows! Let's go!" Gai made a face and started rubbing the back of his neck.

"W-what's with that face!" the young Uchiha demanded. Gai looked at Obito apologetically.

"Well, although I do admire your exuberance and your youthful challenge, um...it is a well known fact that you have not been able to defeat my eternal rival...ever. And seeing how I am currently _ahead_ of him with a score of 20:19! It seems quite unfair to engage you in a fight. I apologize profusely," Gai said and he bowed to emphasize his apology at the end.

Obito's eyebrow was twitching. This...this could not be happening. Even when that short little jerk wasn't there it seemed he was making fun of him! Obito's mind must be playing tricks on him! Yeah, that was it...there's no way this guy said he was _superior _to Kakashi when he knew damn well that those challenges weren't even taken seriously by the Hatake.

_'I mean who would take thumb wrestling and mud slinging as appropriate challenges?'_ thought Obito furiously.

"You..." Obito finally managed to find his words although he was trembling with rage.

Gai looked up from his bow to stare at the older boy questioningly.

"You," he repeated. "I'm gonna kill you!" Obito pulled out a kunai and charged at the younger boy. Gai's eyes went wide and he performed a couple of back flips to avoid the charging Uchiha.

"Hmmm..."Sai hummed thoughtfully. "Well then, Rin-san?" Rin looked up at the older boy.

"Since Obito-kun has decided to engage fuzzy brows-san would you mind taking Kurenai-san? Leave the fat one to me," he said pleasantly.

Rin sweatdropped, but nodded and motioned for the other kunoichi to take their fight away from the boys. Kurenai nodded her agreement and followed her, but not before giving Sai a look that said she thought he was deeply disturbed. Sai didn't pick up on it and waved at her. He turned to look at Asuma. For some reason his eye brow was twitching uncontrollably. He wondered if he was the carrier to some sort of eyebrow disease. It seemed that most of the people he was around had uncontrollably twitchy eyebrows. Maybe it was in his scent? Sai almost lifted his arm up to check when Asuma began to speak.

"You..." Asuma began.

_'Hmmm...Maybe Obito-kun is carrying around some sort of disease too. The 'you' disease maybe?' _Sai mused.

"I'm not fat, you bastard!" Asuma yelled. "What the hell?"

The young Sarutobi pulled out his two specialized knives, still fuming in place, and was sending the root member nasty looks. Sai's smiled dropped when he realized it was time to fight.

"You're going down!" Asuma yelled as he dropped into a battle stance. Sai gave a light smirk.

"On the contrary," Sai said as he flipped himself backwards quickly onto a tree branch and took out his brush and paper. "It will be you who is going down."

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Genma raised his eyebrows at the two high-fiving genin. Apparently the two made a great team. He had went after the leader of the waterfall village genin and had left the other two to his partners (hoping that they wouldn't get killed). When he came back, scroll in hand, the other two waterfall genin were on the floor.

'_Sweet,' _Genma thought. '_I might become a chunin after all' _Genma cleared his throat and the other two stopped cheering to look at their 'leader'.

"All right, good job," Genma smiled at them, they smiled back. "Ready to go to the tower? I think we're about 7 km away." Izumo and Kotetsu saluted.

"Sure thing," Izumo said.

"Yeah, but I'm almost disappointed," Kotetsu whined a little. "That was _way_ to easy"

Genma chuckled.

"Well, we'll probably have some action on the way back if that's what you're disappointed about," Genma said as he began to walk in the direction of the tower. "7 km is a long way and there's probably a bunch of teams waiting to ambush as right before we get to the tower." Izumo's eyes widened, but Kotetsu whooped and danced in place.

"Alright!" Kotetsu shouted. They followed him while Izumo looked miserable and Kotetsu continued to do his wiggling victory dance.

"Wait!" Genma called suddenly while holding out his hand. "Shut up!"

The two smaller genin snuck up to Genma's side slowly and quietly and looked over to wear he was. They snuck together as a group to some a natural peephole through some leaves and looked at the ninja that were fighting in the clearing.

"Hey," Izumo said. "It's Gai and Obito! They're fighting!" Kotetsu snickered.

"Yeah, fighting. Is that what they call an ass-kicking nowadays?" Kotetsu asked with a falsely sweet tone of voice. His two teammates snickered as well.

"Hey, look past them," Genma said suddenly. "It's Asuma and...who is that?"

The boy in question was sitting on top of one of the trees branches with what looked like...a brush and a scroll? Genma shook his head. He really didn't want to know what that was for.

"I think that's that new guy that just showed up with Kakashi's uncle," remarked Izumo.

"Obito and Rin needed someone to take Kakashi's place so that they could take the exams so that guy filled in. I think his name is Sai. No family name." Genma grunted and absorbed the new information.

"Well, let's leave them to their fights. No need for us to get involved," Genma urged them to move away from the clearing. Kotetsu seemed slightly disappointed, but they both agreed and soon their team was moving at top speed in the trees towards their destination.

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Rin huffed as she took out some more kunai. She could admit this girl was tough and she obviously paid more attention to combat instead of the healing arts like herself.

'_Damn it!'_ Rin thought as she missed her target when she threw her kunai.

Kurenai sighed as she eyed her opponent. The girl obviously didn't train her body as often as the boys did. Kurenai knew that the smaller girl in front of her did more training with medical ninjutsu, but still...

'_Whatever,'_ Kurenai thought. '_Let's just end this quickly'_ She stood her ground and began making hand signals.

"W-what...," Rin was startled when black began to close in around her. "Oh no!" She finally, although belatedly, realized that she was being caught in a genjutsu. When she tried to form the right seal and release herself she found that it was too late and her body was being immobilized.

'_Someone!' _Rin thought desperately. '_Anyone! Help me!'_

Her world turned black.

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Obito coughed as he rubbed his sore ribs.

'_God damn that fuzzy brows,'_ Obito thought as he glared at the green clad shinobi in front of him. Gai was currently giving him a rather pitying look and it set his nerves on edge.

'_I'm better than that bastard!'_

Obito grabbed some kunai from his holster and flung them at his opponent. Gai sighed and grabbed one of his own kunai to deflect the ones currently aimed at his body. Obito smirked as the taijutsu user was focused on the kunai and he began to make the necessary hand seals for his next attack.

'_Let's see him dodge this. Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu,'_ Obito thought as he felt chakra push it's way up his throat. Obito opened his mouth and let loose one of the biggest fireballs he had ever created. Gai eyes widened before he was enveloped completely in flames.

Obito sighed as he finished the technique and dragged the air in and out of his lungs rather forcefully. He was exhausted, having taken a beating from Gai and then having been forced to use a technique that took up a lot of energy. The area was still up in flames and Obito smirked with satisfaction.

'_He probably won't die, but this should put him out of commission,' _Obito thought as he adjusted his goggles. Then he felt air move against the back of his neck. His eyes widened with shock and he quickly turned around to see that Gai was standing there looking slightly charred, but nevertheless better than he did. Gai sighed in pity for the shocked genin in front of him.

"My deepest apologies Obito-kun, but it seems that we are on completely different levels," Gai said. Before Obito could work up any rage in response to the degrading statement, he felt himself gasp for air as he was punched in the solar plexus.

Obito grabbed the arm still connected to his stomach, but did him no good as he started to fade away into unconsciousness.

'_Damn it!,'_ Obito thought. '_Why...Why me?'_

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Sai huffed as his ink animals were all being destroyed with relative ease by the genin in front of him. To think he would see the day where his jutsu would be rendered useless by some fast moving knife action that was being executed by a thirteen-year-old genin.

'_Well, he is the third hokage's son,'_ thought Sai as he drew some more lions and quickly sent them into battle since the Sarutobi had just finished demolishing his ink snakes.

'_Perhaps I can wear him down and when he's not looking I'll replace myself with a clone and attack him from behind,' _thought Sai as he began drawing the next few of his ink monsters. His train of thought was shattered be the genin in front of him.

"Hey asshole!" Asuma yelled as he effortlessly destroyed another of the ink creatures.

"You wanna try something else? I could do this all day, but I'll admit I'm getting kind of bored. Why don't you fight me yourself, coward!"

True to Asuma's self-assessment he was barely breathing hard and the puddles of ink surrounding him were growing greater in volume. Sai ignored the insults of his bravery and tried to re-strategize. It seemed that he would not be able to wear out the genin in the near future and although he wasn't worried about running out of ink, he wanted to have a certain amount in case other fights occurred later on in the next five days.

"Argh! That's enough!" Asuma shouted as he destroyed the last ink lion and he began to channel a large amount of chakra into one of his blades. He then tied some wire to the handle and quickly flung it at the Root member. Sai's eyes widened in uncharacteristic shock as he realized just what Asuma's knives could do when they were filled with wind-type chakra like that. He dropped down from his perch swiftly and just before the tree branch exploded from being ripped through roughly by the chakra enhanced knife.

Asuma tugged on the wire in his hand and he deftly caught the blade as it came soaring back to him. The future jounin sensei smirked at the shinobi in front of him.

"I've got you right where I want you," he said smugly as he began to charge. Sai quickly put his scroll, ink, and brush back into their respective places on his person to unsheathe the katana on his back.

'_Direct confrontation it is then,'_ Sai thought wryly as he steeled himself for the first blow.

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_**I'd like to take the time to say that while writing this story I'm taking a lot of liberties with these character's personalities. We don't really know what they were like when they were younger and as you know people can change a lot from childhood to adulthood. I mean look at Kakashi. **_

_**With Asuma, in case any of you complain about OOC-ness (if you were going to complain), he was reported to have left the leaf village and joined the twelve elite guardians of the fire country daimyo. Apparently he wanted to 'make his own path'. I'm assuming that this meant he was pretty rebellious when he was a kid and usually a bit of cockiness goes with that. I don't think he knew Kurenai this early in his life, but I couldn't resist. It's my story anyway :P**_

_**Same goes for other characters as well. **_

_**As for the Rock ninja, as I believe one of you have asked, I'm going to exert more artistic license and assume that the war hasn't started just yet, but it will soon. It makes the story so much more interesting and as a consequence easier for me!**_

_**I think that's it! Review!**_


	22. A Hero Arrives, Sorta

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.**_

_**And with this chapter, the editing is finally over. All should be well from here on out.**_

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Naruto sighed as he darted through the trees with his teammates. He had never thought that he would have ended back in this rotten place, but he was actually kind of glad. They were prepared this time and there wouldn't be any crazy-ass snake pedophiles waiting in the trees to torture/murder them while claiming he wanted Sasuke's body and giving out hickies for free. However, more importantly they were together _and_ they would kick ass this time since they _were _more kick ass this time.

'_No more amatuer crap for me, thank-you-very-much_,' Naruto thought smugly as he reflected on how much he had grown since he had been a genin. He wouldn't go gallivanting about without a plan and rely on his demon chakra to make sure his neck didn't _stay_ broken. He had learned, he had grown, and he would definitely not-

"Hey look guys, I think I see Obito getting his ass kicked! Let's go watch!" Naruto exclaimed cheerfully and he immediately changed directions and leaped into the clearing.

Sasuke and Sakura sweatdropped as they watched their teammate, who admittedly must have been knocked on the head repeatedly when he was a child, leap straight into the fight of two other teams.

"He really hasn't changed much, has he?" Sakura commented to Sasuke.

"Yeah, the sad thing is, is that he probably thinks he has," Sasuke snorted and crossed his arms.

"You think? Anyway, Naruto doesn't really need any help, but I think I'm gonna give Rin a hand. She's trapped in one of Kurenai's genjutsu," Sakura pointed over to the glade where Kurenai was watching disinterestedly as Rin was twitching on the ground in front of her.

"As much as I love to see the girl camaraderie, don't you think I should give her a hand? Genjutsu being a specialty of the sharingan and all?" Sasuke arched a brow.

"Well, I guess, but..." Sakura blushed as she turned her head and mumbled something under her breath.

"What was that?" Sasuke's eyebrow hitched itself a little higher.

"I don't want to have to deal with either Sai calling me a hag or Gai-sensei being a weirdo. But I think Naruto is more interested in Sai's fight than Obito's really which means I'm going to be stuck with the beast."

They both looked over to the clearing where Obito's ass had just been soundly kicked while Asuma's and Sai's was just picking up.

"I've fought Lee and Gai so many times it's running out of style. However, I never really get much of a chance to brush up on my genjutsu skills. Would you really take this opportunity away from me, Sakura?" Sasuke told her while trying to look pathetic (and failing spectacularly, but it said something about his self growth that he was actually trying). Meanwhile Sakura had caught the brow-twitching disease.

"I... guess...," Sakura grunted out while scowling at the smug Uchiha.

"Thanks, Sakura. I knew you'd understand," Sasuke smirked as he patted her on the shoulder and made his way towards Kurenai and Rin.

'Bastard's really laying it on thick, isn't he?' Sakura thought as he watched him prance off and she sighed. 'At least maybe I'll get to pound the crap out of something. Genjutsu battles don't usually end up that way.'

"Here we go," Sakura muttered as she made her way towards Might Gai, idiot extraordinaire.

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Kurenai was startled out of her idleness when she realized someone had interrupted her boring show of watching a medic-nin be mildly tortured under the influence of a new jutsu that she had been wanting to try out for a while.

"Hmm, not really challenging yourself, are you?" said the teenager she recognized as one of the Uchiha's that had came with Kakashi's uncle. Kurenai raised her eyebrow as he simply stepped over Rin's twitching form.

"Not really, but I've been trying to find someone to try out this new jutsu on and sensei wouldn't let me do it on my teammates," Kurenai shrugged. "I thought that you'd be more interested in saving the girl though. Isn't she a friend of yours?"

"Not really. She's more Sakura's friend than mine," he put a hand on his hip as he pointed in the direction where Gai and Obito had there fight. Kurenai could vaguely make out a blob of pink and red from where they were standing.

"Is that so?" Kurenai said as she prepared herself to quickly make some hand seals.

"Well, before we get started, what's your name Uchiha?"

"Sasuke," he smirked as he drew the sword on his back and the Sharingan flared to life in his eyes. Kurenai paled slightly when she noticed that he not only had the Sharingan, but a fully developed one.

"And let's see if you can entertain me for a bit."

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"Are you Might Gai?" Sakura asked the figure standing over the body of the littler Uchiha.

The 'beast' in question quickly turned around and visibly brightened up when he saw his new opponent. Unfortunately he also felt the urge to give her a new smile, thumbs up, and hip check combo, but she was used to it from spending so much time with Lee (although for some reason his were easier to handle).

"Why, yes, my good lady, I am!" The light from his teeth blinded her for a moment or two. "Am I correct in assuming you are the lovely maiden of youth that came to Konoha with my esteemed rival's esteemed Uncle?"

"Ugghh..." Sakura groaned slightly under her breath. "Uh, yeah, that's me. My name's Haruno Sakura."

"Ah, what a lovely and youthful name for a lovely and youth blossom of Konoha!" Hip check. Shudder. "Are you here to defend my esteemed and respected rival's teammate?"

"Uh, yes," Sakura managed to get out. "I am." And at that she shifted into a slightly more offensive battle stance. Gai nodded solemnly.

"Allow me a few moments to place my esteemed rival's teammate out of harm's way."

Sakura nodded as she watched the fuzzy browed boy picked up the slightly larger boy and placed him next to a tree that looked as if it would be out of everyone's way. It reminded her that although Gai and Lee were some of the weirdest and strangest people she had ever met, they were also some of the kindest and the noblest. Much too noble and kind to be ninja sometimes, but they managed. Sakura gave Gai a warm smile which caused him to blush a little as he made his way back to his position opposite her.

"Now!" Gai moved into his signature stance. One arm behind his back, one arm stretched out in front of them in the classic 'come and get your ass-kicked' form, and widened stance that allowed him to move quickly and freely. "Let our battle commence!"

Sakura smirked darkly as she started to adjust her gloves, the leather creaking ominously as she wiggled her fingers.

"Yeah, Let's"

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Naruto grunted as he landed somewhere behind Asuma and Sai. He was a little disappointed when he realized that Obito's ass had been soundly beat before he had gotten a chance to intervene, so he decided to go over to Sai's fight instead. Unfortunately their fight was only just beginning and unlike his other teammates he now had nothing to do.

'Damnit!' He thought furiously. 'Why does this always happen to me?'

He watched as Sai finally stopped trying to attack what looked like a mini-Asuma and pulled out his sword.

'Cool, maybe things will get a little interesting now,' Naruto thought eagerly. 'I'll start fighting for whoever starts to lose.'

Not that it occurred to our hero to attack the person whose scroll they needed, but hey that was what luck was for, right?

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Sai's eyes flicked to his peripheral vision when he realized who had just arrived.

Surprisingly, he hadn't just thrown himself into the fray, but it made Sai a little wary to think of what he might be planning. However, he decided to ignore him for now and concentrate on the smirking genin in front of him.

"Are you ready to lose, punk?" Asuma pulled both of his blade covered fists in front of him and gave two practice thrusts in his direction. Sai gave him a smile which made the genin pale slightly.

"Only when you are, fatty," Sai said sweetly as the smile slowly melted off of his face and revealed his cold, dark eyes for the first time. Asuma paled even further, if possible, when he realized that he preferred the impossibly fake smile to this. Sai felt a twinge of satisfaction as he watched the younger ninja unconsciously pull his arms closer to his body in defense.

It was then that Sai decided to strike.


	23. Of Fighting and Effort

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.**_

_If I'm deemed useless after I try my hardest then that's my own fault. _

_But being deemed useless when I haven't even started is something I can't allow._

_-Nakamura Shungiku_

Sakura drowned out all the activity going on around her and stared her opponent down. Although she was familiar with Lee's fighting style, Gai was something that she couldn't predict in the same way. Unlike Lee, Gai had easier access to his chakra coils and could utilize it in a fight. Also, Sakura had never seen Gai fight. She had seen him spar and she had even joined him and Lee on a morning jog every once in a while. However, seriously fighting an enemy was something entirely different.

She studied his fighting stance. It was identical to Lee's, but...she didn't want to be sloppy. Expecting to know all his moves already would be a very stupid thing to assume. She would have to be careful.

"O Beauteous Lotus Blossom of Youth!" the Green Beast called to her.

Sakura felt her eyebrow twitch in irritation. At least Lee had learned to knock it off with the Lotus blossom crap. Although it was sweet once in a while, it was just plain disgusting that it was coming from a prepubescent Gai-sensei.

"Yes?" she managed to spit out.

"I truly do not wish to fight one as lovely as yourself, but if you must insist on doing so, I will allow you the first hit," Gai said gallantly as he let his guard down. He held out his arms and closed his eyes, obviously waiting for some sort of attack.

Years of training with Tsunade wouldn't let her put her guard down, but Sakura could feel her mouth drop open in shock. How...how _dare_ he? How could he just...just _assume_ that because she was a _girl_-!

Sakura saw red. She changed her mind about the stupid little boy; he was _so_ going to die.

"I don't need it!" Sakura yelled as she aimed her fist at the ground.

Gai peeked an eye open curiously at this declaration and blinked in shock when he saw his lovely opponent throw her punch at the ground instead of at him. What was the lovely lotus do-

Gai's eyes almost popped out of his skull when he saw the ground split and chunks of rock and land began to make their way towards him a large, terrifying wave. He quickly leaped to one of the trees, but when his feet connected and he looked in the direction of the (not so delicate) lotus blossom, his eyes bugged again when he saw her hefting one of the _boulders_ on to her shoulder.

Sakura gave Gai a glare filled with killing intent. The beast was going to be squashed like a _bug!_ Gai barely had enough time to move out of the way again before the tree that he had been squatting on was toppled over by the gigantic piece of earth.

"Fight me properly damn it!" Sakura yelled when she saw that Gai still wasn't fighting her.

Although it was true that Gai wasn't attacking, now it was more out of shock than any sense of misplaced chivalry. Unfortunately for him, this time Sakura uprooted one of the thinner trees (meaning that it would only take at least five Sakura's holding hands to hug the tree trunk) and gave a war cry as she swung the poor tree like a bat.

"Shaaaanaarrroooo!"

Needless to say, Gai would never, ever, ever again underestimate his opponent from this day forth.

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Sasuke smirked when the young Kurenai paled. He knew that she was no match for a fully matured sharingan, he simply wondered if she knew as well and what she would do now if she did. Sasuke held his position and waited for his opponent to act.

Meanwhile, Kurenai _did_ know that she was in trouble. She knew next to nothing about the sharingan, but she did know that a complete one could see through any genjutsu (or so the rumors go). However...Kurenai bit her lip and glared at the smirking boy in front of her, she would just have to throw her best at him! Although she was hopelessly out matched, she couldn't give up before she began! Her team was relying on her!

Kurenai began to make hand signals as fast as she could. Hopefully this would work.

Sasuke's smirk only deepened when he realized that she was going to attack him even though she knew that she was no match for him. Although Sasuke didn't really understand why she would do something like that, he had to admire her for her courage.

His sharingan tomoe spun lazily as he watched her manipulate her own chakra. He saw when the chakra suddenly spread out from her body and began to speed towards him. Sasuke watched in fascination as the web attempted to ensnare and manipulate his own chakra pathways. He truly didn't have many chances to study new genjutsu since he had mostly studied only hand-to-hand combat and elemental jutsu. However, it was about time that he had rounded out his skills. Sharingan eyes were practically designed for illusion, but compared to others he was woefully lacking in this area. He hadn't been kidding when he had said he had wanted to fight Kurenai for the extra experience.

Sasuke blinked when he realized the genjutsu was finally complete and he studied the chakra swirling around him. Yes...he could see how this worked...

Kurenai panted heavily from the amount of energy she had put into the set up of this illusion. Although normally she wouldn't have used such a technique, it was the best and most powerful in her arsenal and if this didn't work then nothing else would.

She blinked in surprise when it looked like he was just standing there staring off into space. Although it was a genjutsu, if she truly had caught him, she had expected more of a reaction than that... Perhaps the rumors were wrong about the sharingan and they were useless in the face of a good illusion? Kurenai made a face at that. That probably wasn't it. Maybe _this _Uchiha just wasn't good with them...?

When Kurenai saw that he still wasn't moving, she moved cautiously towards him. She flinched and froze in fear when he suddenly blinked his eyes and looked straight at her. She forgot her fear and her face colored in rage when she realized he was smirking at her again.

"Was that the best you had?" Sasuke smirked. "Or is there anything else you'd like to show me?"

"Why you-!" Kurenai pulled out one of her throwing stars.

Sasuke smirked and replied as if she had answered politely with a 'no'.

"Well, if that's the case..."

Sasuke sheathed his sword and started making hand signals. He was going too fast for Kurenai to follow them all, but her eyes widened with horror when she realized that she recognized the last set of hand signals. The smug Uchiha's eyes brightened in response to her horror. A reaction that one who realized they were going to be caught in their own trap could only produce.

"When it's done you can tell me how I did," Sasuke told her as her vision became obscured by a bone chilling darkness.

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Asuma braced himself as the creep he was fighting finally attacked him. At first he had thought that he could handle the smiling fool easily, but now... something about the teen's cold-blooded aura told him that Sai could rip him to shreds and he would only plaster that fake smile back onto his face and laugh afterwards.

Asuma flinched when his opponent's short sword collided with his own trench knives. He stared into the inky dark eyes that were suddenly only inches away from him and he shuddered at the sudden cold that had trickled down his spine.

Asuma spread his arms, forcing the blade that had been locked with his own and the arm that was attached to it to rise above its owners head. Sai never looked away from him for a second and Asuma quickly skipped back a few paces to put some ground between the two of them.

"What's the matter?" Sai asked, his voice devoid of his usual false cheer.

Asuma shivered again. It was like the older boy was a black hole the sucked all the life and joy out of everything around him and replaced it with an empty void. Asuma was beginning to doubt this guy even had a soul.

"You were so sure of yourself before," Said continued, not moving as he studied his opponent. "I'm almost disappointed."

Asuma glared at this and fed his chakra into his trench knives. Although he and his dad had only just begun developing this jutsu, it seemed like it was his only choice. Asuma glanced at the wobbly looking chakra blades forming. He tried to clear and focus his thoughts. Although this would probably backfire on him, it was the only thing he could think of that would give him a one up on the monster in front of him. If he failed...well, at least he had tried his best.

Asuma resumed his offensive stance and glared at the other boy with renewed vigor. Sai looked curious at the change in attitude and at the change in his blade's shape, but he dutifully resumed his own stance when he realized that the other meant business again.

"Well?" Sai asked, but before he could finish Asuma had thrown himself at the other with all his might.

Sai tensed and waited for the blow.

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Naruto hummed lightly under his breath as he watched Sai scare the crap out of Asuma-sensei. Naruto sympathized with him. Sai could be creepier than Orochimaru when he wanted to be. He thought about that for a moment and then thought of the time when Orochimaru had dressed up as a woman in the first chunin exam and had used his tongue and mouth for several activities. One of which included giving Sasuke a hickey. Naruto made a face. Okay, so maybe not as creepy as that guy, but still...

Naruto quickly grew bored with the stand off that Sai and Asuma were having and looked to see how Sakura and Gai were doing. Naruto's eyes almost left their sockets when he realized he had just witnessed Sakura pummel someone with a giant tree. Naruto winced when he saw Gai get knocked out. He'd be feeling that for the next month. He wondered what Gai had said to get her so pissed off though. Usually it took a lot more than a few minutes of battle banter to get Sakura that riled up. Naruto figured that he probably didn't want to know.

When he turned his head to look over at Sasuke...Naruto's eyebrow twitched when he saw that he was standing in between the two girl's twitching bodies, smirking like the asshole he was. Naruto rolled his eyes. Sasuke could be such a douche bag sometimes. And as usual, he was stuck with the least amount of action. Naruto looked back over at Sai's fight, expecting to see Asuma knocked out and Sai looking at him with that awful smile back on his face.

His eyes widened again when he realized that Asuma was using the wind chakra manipulation technique he had showed him. He had thought it was a jounin level technique, but... Naruto squinted his eyes and gave an 'ahh' of enlightenment when he saw the state of Asuma's chakra. He hadn't mastered it. Now it made a little more sense.

It was a good attempt, but he would never be able to win on his own unless...Naruto felt his lips form a smirk of his own. Unless he helped him.

Naruto's smirk grew into a full blown grin as he charged a rasengan in his right hand. Taking out Sai and then Asuma in one go was a good strategy, right? Two birds and one stone, and what not. Naruto's eyes fixed onto Sai's back. It wasn't like either of them had much of a shot anyway since both their teams were already down for the count. It was about time he got Sai back for those sparring matches with Tenzo anyway.


	24. Naruto & Asuma vs Sai!

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.**_

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Asume could feel his heartbeat in his throat as he moved to attack his cool-headed opponent. A lot of things passed through Asuma's mind at that moment. Most of them centered around how it was very likely he was going to die, and all of the things he would regret because of it. However, a small part of him was also scolding (it sounded irritatingly like his old man) that attacking _anyone_ with this unfinished technique would be a _bad idea_.

In the end, Asuma figured he'd be better off wiping his mind blank and ignoring everything besides what was happening in these few seconds. Everything else would just be getting in the way.

"Haaa!" Asuma cried as he thrust towards Sai.

He smirked as Sai brought his short sword up in a defensive position to block his attack.

'That'll be of no use!' Asuma thought. 'Even unfinished, my blades can cut through any ordinary sword!'

True to his belief, Asuma's trench knives quickly cut through both the blade and its weilder. Asuma reveled in the shock apparent on his opponents face as he fell, but any satisfaction he had was immediately disspelled when the body in front of him dissolved into a pool of ink. Asuma immediately threw his weapons back into position and searched the surrounding area.

Besides traces of another team that had interfered with the surrounding fights, Asuma couldn't find any sign of the boy he had been fighting.

'Where is he?' Asuma thought frantically as he turned and searched the trees behind him.

Asuma could feel his heart stop and his body go numb when he saw a darkening shadow on the forest floor in front of him, indicating that Sai was striking from above.

'Damn!' Asuma thought, realizing what had happened. He tried to turn back around, but as soon as he caught a glimpse of his opponent he knew that he was finished.

Asuma lashed out blindly with his blades, pumping as much chakra into them as possible. But just as the inevitable seemed to be taking its course, the unexpected happened.

"Hey, Sai!"

Asuma's eyes opened and he looked at the shadowed figure that had appeared behind a truly shocked looking Sai.

Sai's own shock lasted only for a moment before he swiftly turned in midair to face his new opponent. However, the newcomer's jutsu tore apart his body within seconds.

Asuma stood still as he was splashed in ink (another clone) and looked at the figure in front of him. He curiously studied the man's hand with wide eyes and saw the remnants of something powerful fade into the air.

"Hi! I'm Naruto!" the boy said with a cheeky grin.

Asuma could only choke on the air that seemed to be stuck in his throat as he looked upon the blonde, blue-eyed, and orange clad ninja before him.

'Why does he remind me of Namikaze-sensei?' Asuma thought.

"A-Asuma," he managed to choke out. Naruto chuckled and moved to stand next to him, looking forwards at the spot in front of them.

Asuma turned to look to and he saw that another Sai was standing before them.

"What are you doing, Naruto?" Sai asked. His voice was mild, but if Asuma didn't know any better, he would have said that he sounded slightly...peeved.

'That's what I was thinking,' Asuma admitted as he glanced at the blonde ninja from the corner of his eye.

"Helping out the old man's son! What's it look like?" Naruto exclaimed as he bent his knees in preperation for an attack.

"Hey!" Asuma yelled before he could help himself. Both of the ninjas looked in his direction.

"I don't want you to help me just because my old man's the hokage!" Asuma said angrily, momentarily forgetting that he was rejecting a potentially powerful ally.

Naruto chuckled again and rubbed his nose a bit.

"I'm not helping you out because of that!" Naruto proclaimed. "Sure, that's probably part of the reason, but if it is, it's only because I like that old geezer!"

Asuma couldn't help but smile a little at the 'old geezer' part.

"But really, I just want to get back at this guy!" Naruto said, pointing at the emotionless teenager in front of them who was calmly waiting for them to finish. Asuma simply frowned.

"But why?" Asuma asked. "Didn't you guys come here together? Why would you fight him?"

"Well, sure he's my friend and all," Naruto admitted, albeit a tad unwittingly. "But I just want a little payback from this one spar that we had a while ago. I've just never really had much of chance to redeem myself."

Asuma raised an eyebrow and Sai too had a similar reaction.

"I thought you were over that," Sai stated, his expression looked slightly vexed. It was the largest amount of genuine emotion he had seen from the guy and Asuma was curious about the type of relationship that existed between the two.

"But...I guess I should have known that you'd hold these kind of grudges," he continued, fake smile plastered onto his face once more. "Are you compensating for something, dickless?"

Naruto's eyes seemed to be enflamed with rage and he pointed accusingly at his 'friend'.

"See! That's why!" Naruto yelled, frustration rolling off of him in waves. "Normally it wouldn't be such a big deal, but this guy is ten times more annoying than Sasuke ever was! Gahh!"

Asuma could feel his face drop at the scene and the sweat on the back of his head gathering in exasperation. They...couldn't be serious. Could they?

"Well, whatever. I guess you're helping me then?" Asuma asked as he gathered his wits and prepared for a battle against the emotionless ninja.

"Hell yeah!" Naruto yelled and he brought his hands together in a plus sign.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" he yelled and suddenly 10 extra Naruto's appeared around Sai.

Asuma jumped in his skin when Naruto suddenly grabbed his arm and lifted him in the trees that bordered the far side of the clearing. They were soon crouched onto a tree branch, their positions obscured by thick foliage and watching the fight from afar. Once settled, Asuma realized that Naruto had also replaced the two of them with doppelgangers.

"What are you doing?" Asuma whispered. "If those are just illusions then-"

"They're not," Naruto said with a grin, his face half obscured by the shadows of the trees. Asuma had to admit that it made him look kind of cool. "They're shadow clones and pretty solid too."

'Actual shadow clones!' Asuma thought as he re-examined the fight in the clearing. 'But that's a jounin level technique!'

Sure enough, when the Narutos made contact with Sai, thay managed to land solid hits and were able to transform themselves into various weaponry.

"We need to come up with a plan," Naruto told him as he kept his fingers in the odd 'plus sign' shape and continued to discreetly replace the clones that dissappeared once hit, therefore keeping Sai busy.

"W...what do you think we should do?" Asuma asked, deferring to his new ally's obviously superior experience with not only ninja techniques (as it would seem), but also to his familiarity with their opponent.

"Chances are, that's not the real Sai as well," Naruto admitted, studying the scene before them. "Most of Sai's jutsu work long range so he's probably hiding somewhere where we can't spot him. What we have to do is weed him out."

"How will we do that?"

Naruto looked thoughtful for a moment, his lips twisted in concentration.

"I'd say that the two of us should split up, but..." Naruto glanced at his companion.

Asuma flushed. Yeah, if he found the real Sai, there probably wouldn't be much he could do about it.

"Don't sweat it," Naruto assured him. "Sai's just got a lot of battle experience. You were almost okay with that elemental jutsu, but I think that it was doomed from the beginning. It was a little sloppy."

Asuma's eyes widened in shock and his mouth opened and closed a few times involuntarily before he managed to say anything.

"How did you-!"

"I've gone through a similar training!" Naruto told him cheerfully. "And we have the same type of elemental chakra."

"You have wind too?" Asuma asked, a little stunned by all these revelations. What kind of guy was this...?

"Yup, but I don't think we should use moves like that. It won't help us much," Naruto told him and Asuma gulped and nodded. He hadn't really wanted to use that jutsu anyway.

"Anyway," Naruto said seriously. "Sai prefers to stay at the top of the trees."

At this Naruto nodded towards the tree that Sai had been perched in when he had first battled Asuma, but Naruto indicated that he would be at the top.

"When I stop making clones, our doppelgangers will split and make as if to attack Sai's ink clone from two sides. When all three of them dissapear, there'll be enough smoke to cover you so that you can charge up the tree towards Sai."

"Wait! Me? But-" Asuma protested.

"Don't worry!" Naruto said. Asuma relaxed when Naruto gave him a comforting grin, although he didn't know why.

"When Sai comes at you, the real one, I'll come in from behind you and attack him while he's focused on you," Naruto finished.

Asuma's brow furrowed at the plan.

"How do you know that he'll be the real one?" Asuma asked, confusion tinting his voice.

"If you're the one to attack his actual position, then it'll be the real him," Naruto assured him. "If it was me then Sai would make a quick distraction so that he could escape. But if _you _attack him, he'll assume that I'm still hiding over here and that I sent you to smoke him out. That means he'll try to take _you_ out and he'll go to attack me."

"How are _you_ going to attack him anyway? He'll be able to see you behind me, won't he?" Asuma asked.

Naruto gave him a grin this time that reminded Asuma of a fox.

"Nope! Leave it to me! Oh, and don't use your knives this time!" Naruto warned. "He'll be expecting that and it'll also mean that you'll have to get close to him. Keep a bunch of kunai handy, and some throwing stars too. Just move him from his spot from a distance and make as if you're going to attack him head on. I'll take care of the rest."

Asuma nodded. It sounded like an okay plan...better than anything he could come up with anyhow.

"Okay!" Naruto said. "Ready?"

Asuma nodded once more.

"Good."

And Naruto stopped making clones. Asuma held his breath as he watched the scene unfold before him just as Naruto had said it would. Just as the three remaining clones dissappeared in an explosion of ink and smoke, Asuma pumped as much chakra into his legs as he could and took off.

He quickly grabbed a handful of kunai and other throwing weapons. Once he made it half way up the tree, he spotted his target.

'There!' Asuma thought as he saw the dark figure perched on top of the tree.

He quickly threw a kunai at Sai and he watched as the dark haired boy quickly shoved his scroll back into his pack and made his way towards him, his own kunai in hand.

Asuma gulped and felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead as he watched his opponent speed his way towards him. Asuma threw the rest of his projectiles at Sai and watched as he batted them away with his own weapon.

'I hope you know what you're doing!' Asuma thought desperately as he prepared himself for impact with his final kunai, just in case. 'Naruto!'

00000000000

'What's that idiot doing?' Sasuke thought as he observed the ongoing battle between Sai, Naruto, and what looked like a really young looking Asuma-sensei.

"Hey, Sasuke!"

Sasuke looked to the side and saw that Sakura had made her way over to his side of the clearing while dragging the limp forms of both Gai and Obito with her.

"Did you kill him?" Sasuke asked, nodding towards the obscenely green genin in her grasp. Sakura made a face, but shook her head.

"No," she actually sounded a little dissapointed. "He's an idiot, but he doesn't deserve to die."

Sasuke winced when she dropped him to the ground next to Kurenai with a harsh sounding thud.

'But apparently he deserves a little more violence,' Sasuke thought dryly as he watched her place Obito on the ground gently next to Rin.

"Good to know," Sasuke said. "Seeing as how you'd be messing with the time-space continuum if you did."

Sakura rolled her eyes and scoffed.

"Whatever. What's Naruto doing?" she asked, pointing towards the clone frenzy.

"Naruto sided with Asuma-sensei," Sasuke said. "He's hiding in those trees."

Sasuke pointed towards one side of the clearing.

"Sai's hiding up there."

He pointed to the top a tree on the other side.

"I'm sure Sai knows where they're hiding, but I'm not sure if he knows what they're planning."

Sakura raised an eyebrow at the Uchiha, but Sasuke just shrugged.

"Well," Sakura began thoughtfully. "Sai does have a bit of a tendency to underestimate Naruto."

"Most people do. It's pretty easy to do," Sasuke said. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"But Naruto sometimes surprises people. And he's been bottling up a lot of frustration lately about Sai anyway," Sakura said, arms crossed. "I think he'll win."

"You think?" Sasuke asked curiously as he studied the ongoing fight in front of him. Sasuke had spent a lot less time with Sai and Naruto so he couldn't really make as fair a judgement as Sakura could.

"You have no idea what the chance of revenge against Sai could do to a person's motivation to succeed," Sakura said darkly.

Sasuke thought of all the... 'nicknames' that Sai had thought up for Naruto so far.

"I think I could imagine," Sasuke said.

"Big surprise," Sakura muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Sasuke asked suspiciously, eyes narrowed.

"Nothing!" Sakura gave him a large grin and turned her head back to the fight.

"Oh look! Something's happening!"

Sasuke gave her a small glare, but let it slide.

"The idiot had better get a scroll, at the very least," Sasuke said.

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Unseen by both Asuma and Sai, Naruto was actually right behind Asuma. More accurately, he was attached to Asuma's back in the form of a squirrel.

'I'm surprised Asuma didn't notice,' Naruto thought as he peeked over Asuma's shoulder. 'Now's my chance!'

Naruto quickly released the illusion and used Asuma's back to throw himself in the air towards Sai while at the same time pushing Asuma away from to the two of them. Naruto quickly charged a rasengan in his hand and brought it down in front of Sai. Getting caught in such close proximity to the rasegan was guarenteed to knock most people out, just from the force of the impact, but just in case Naruto charged another one behind his back.

Sure enough, Sai spotted what Naruto was doing and he quickly pushed off the tree to leap over Naruto's body. Naruto just grinned, discharged his original rasengan to grab Sai's ankle, flip, and pin him as he clipped him with the rasengan in his other hand.

The contact was light, but it was enough to propel a grimacing Sai downwards, now with the force of Naruto's jutsu rather than gravity. He might've been able to recover too if a confused Asuma hadn't been in the way. The two of them hit the ground hard and Naruto grinned at the two knocked out ninja.

Naruto jumped to the ground and stood triumphantly over his defeated opponents.

"Hey! Sakura! Sasuke!" Naruto called to his two teammates. "I won!"

"Whatever, idiot! Just grab one of their scrolls!" Sasuke called.

Sakura was already making her way over to drag the two bodies over to their teammates.

"Hehe!" Naruto chuckled as he pulled a scroll out of his back pocket. "I already swiped it off of Asuma when he wasn't paying attention, just in case I couldn't knock out Sai."

Sakura laughed and gave Naruto a high-five. Even Sasuke gave a little smirk.

"It's even the one that we need!" Naruto exclaimed as he helped Sakura drag Asuma and Sai over to the growing piles of ninja.

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When Asuma woke up an hour or so later, he groaned and rubbed the back of his head.

'Where...am I?' he thought as he looked around.

When he caught sight of his teammates next to him (also knocked out), he suddenly remembered what they were doing there and he quickly looked at his surroundings again.

"Where is everybody?"

...

"And where's my scroll!"

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"I can't believe that Naruto would just attack you like that!" Rin exclaimed as she healed one of the cuts on Sai's head.

Sai shrugged and kept watch from the large bush they were currently hiding in, far away from the clearing where they had been fighting previously.

"He's probably been waiting to do that for a while," Said told them. Obito was sulking over his own defeat next to them.

"But at least he didn't take our scroll," Sai added.

Rin sighed and nodded.

"Yeah, and good thing Sakura patched me up so that I could get you guys out of there," Rin admitted.

Sakura had refused to heal Sai, however, something that Rin could see the sense in if her teammate had just been in a fight with him. But still... the whole situation was just a little...

"Well, let's rest up," Rin said as she finished healing Sai. "Looks like we'll just have to start again tomorrow."

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_**And I finished the fight! Whew, I feel like it's been going on forever! I read some old school Naruto (the chapters before Naruto leaves the villiage) and it really helped me get in the mood to write a full out fight scene. Sorry for the failness of it. I'm still a little inexperienced with fight scenes.**_

_**Thanks for reading and tell me what you think (aka review)~**_


	25. Frustrations

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.**_

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"Is he gone yet?" Kakashi asked as he peeked around the corner with a sizable stack of books and scrolls in his hands. Sarutobi only chuckled and nodded, motioning for Kakashi to come closer.

"Yes, I sent Minato out to do some of my paperwork," Sarutobi told him with a smug smile. Kakashi quirked an eyebrow.

"That should keep him occupied," Kakashi muttered as he set his burden down onto the wooden table that Tenzo, Kakashi, and Sarutobi had made their official work desk located in the Sandaime's personal library.

"What did you find?" Sarutobi asked curiously, looking at the reading material that the jounin had set down. Kakashi sighed with frustration as he picked up one of the scrolls and opened it.

"Not much," Kakashi admitted. He showed the Hokage that the scroll was from earth country and that it was a record of natural phenomenon from before the hidden villages had been established.

"Most of what I've found mentions what we experienced in a roundabout way. We need to find something more detailed," Kakashi said as he quickly skimmed through the record in front of him and moved on to the next one.

"I'm not sure if that will be possible," the Third said gravely.

He had been a tad too optimistic in the beginning, he had known this, but if they couldn't find something themselves, there only choice would be to grovel to the other countries. And due to their tentative alliance with Sand and the others, Sarutobi knew that this wasn't an option. Konoha wasn't so friendly with other nations right now that they could demand potentially classified information from one another.

'Perhaps one day in the future,' Sarutobi mused, wondering what the political climate was like in the older Hatake's time. 'But not today.'

"Yes, I know," Kakashi bit out, growing more and more frustrated with the dead ends they kept on running into. "But we know practically nothing about any of this. Is it random? Can we make one ourselves? Can we recreate the conditions that make it? Can we predict where the next one will show up? And if we can, will that even be in our lifetimes?"

Kakashi stopped flipping through the moldy book that he was currently holding and slammed it shut. Sarutobi watched somberly as Kakashi closed his eye and rubbed at his temple.

"Will we even be able to get back?" Kakashi asked, his voice a steady monotone, but his posture belied all the anxiety that he was trying to conceal.

Sarutobi took a drag from his pipe and exhaled heavily, thinking of the situation. He felt for the younger man, it was certainly not a position he would want to be in and it wasn't something that he could relate to either. Kakashi sighed again and rubbed his perpetually messy hair.

"The others are doing fine for now, the chunin exam will keep them occupied, but when the novelty of everything fades away..." Kakashi expressed his concern.

Sarutobi chewed on the end of his pipe thoughtfully, thinking of the other time travelers.

"I cannot say that I truly know any of you," Sarutobi admitted, the 'yet' was left unsaid. "But it seems to me, from what I've witnessed and from what you've told me, that they are all remarkably strong individuals. I wouldn't give up on them before the time comes for them to show you what they can endure. They might even surprise you," Sarutobi told him. Kakashi smiled a bit as he thought of his team.

"I suppose you're right," Kakashi admitted. "Naruto alone is full of enough surprises to last a lifetime."

"That's the spirit," Sarutobi said, dumping some of the ash from out of his pipe.

The two of them jumped when they heard a knock at the door. Kakashi quickly closed all of the books and set them aside, making them less visible to those that walked in. He didn't want to take any chances after all and it might look a little strange if the Hokage was looking up time travel with his younger counterpart's long lost 'uncle'.

"Come in," Sarutobi called once he was sure that Kakashi had closed everything and moved it out of sight.

"Sir!" a chunin called as he opened the door and bowed. "One of the instructors from Sand is here. He says that he comes with a private message from the Kazekage."

If the chunin was confused, he hid it well, but Kakashi and Sarutobi exchanged a look, knowing that this was extremely out of character. Although Sand and Leaf were no longer at war, most of the people in the two villages had not warmed up to the others yet (most notably the puppet master Chiyo, who still called for Sakumo Hatake's blood regardless of his death).

The chunin stepped back and let the shinobi that had been standing just outside the door step through the threshold. Kakashi's eye widened when he saw who it was.

"G-Gaara?"

0000000000000000

Naruto grinned as they stepped into the main part of the tower. They had just seen their chunin instructor, received the whole 'heaven and earth' lecture, and were now going to have to wait patiently for the next four days until the second part of the test was over.

"How many do you think will make it?" Naruto asked as he sat down on one of the stone window ledges and looked out into the forest.

"Our first year was a bit unusual," Sasuke remarked as he leaned against the wall next to Naruto. "I doubt we'll see as big of a turnout."

"I don't know," Sakura said thoughtfully, sitting on the ledge with Naruto. "I saw a lot of strong ninja and I think that war might be coming soon, or at least people think so. That usually makes hidden villages allow more promotions than they normally would."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted as he crossed his arms and closed his eyes, not very interested in the topic.

"Hopefully we won't be here long enough to get involved in a war," Naruto said, basking in the last rays of sunlight that dusk was offering. "As much as I like being here, I don't think that'd be a good idea."

"Yeah..." Sakura sighed, suddenly uncomfortable with the turn their conversation was taking. "We'll see."

And with that the group was silent. All that was left for them to do was wait.

0000000000000000

Obito silently darted through the trees alongside his two teammates. They had thought it best to make their way closer to the tower. Although they still had their scroll, they didn't want to gain another only to be a good couple of kilometers from the tower. It would only make them more paranoid andvulnerable than they had to be.

Sai had told them that their best bet now was to set up traps around the tower and wait for an arriving team to get caught so that they could grab their scroll. After that they could make their way to the tower quickly and rest up before the end of the exam.

Although Obito normally wasn't very fond of these kinds of tactics, it would probably be the best choice for them, especially since their encounter with Asuma, Gai, and Kurenai showed them that they weren't exactly cut out for direct confrontations with other teams.

'I have to get better,' Obito thought glumly, thinking back to his humiliatingly short fight with Gai.

Their team felt a surge in power to their left and they swerved to their right, giving the area a wide berth. There was no need to take unnecessary risks.

Sai glanced in the direction of a large clearing. His two teammates were quieter than usual ever since they were defeated and although Sai knew that they had actually gotten very lucky, it would be best to complete this part of the exam as quickly and efficiently as possible.

'We'll have to make sure to stay away from those people though,' Sai thought as he caught a glimpse of a rock genin team in a clearing covered in blood. They were going too fast for the other two to catch sight of it. Sai was glad about this since he knew that most people had problems with that kind of thing, even if they were ninja.

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"G-Gaara?" Kakashi choked out at the sight of the unmistakable red-headed shinobi.

Gaara glanced at the Sandaime Hokage, who was staring at him with great interest, and turned to the flabbergasted Konoha jounin.

"Kakashi-san," Gaara crossed his arms and nodded in greeting.

"That will be all, Raiza," the Hokage told the chunin lingering by the entrance and the man gave the sand shinobi one last glance before nodding and closing the door.

"What are you doing here?" Kakashi asked the Kazekage, his tone belied his utter disbelief.

"Is your friend from the future as well?" Sarutobi asked curiously.

Gaara turned towards the Sandaime and nodded.

"Yes, in twenty-two years, I am the fifth Kazekage," the eighteen year old told him.

Sarutobi's mouth dropped as he looked at the man before him. He would be Kazekage? Even though he was considering Minato as Hokage, there were still some complaints about his age and the Yellow Flash had quite a number of years on this man!

"You're the fifth Kazekage?" Sarutobi repeated after Gaara, his voice weak with disbelief. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the old Hokage when he realized what he was thinking.

"Gaara's been the Kazekage for the four years or so," Kakashi told him with a smile. Sarutobi could feel himself go numb.

'Not only is he the Kazekage, but he's held the position for four _years_?' the Hokage thought with wonder.

"What are you doing here Gaara?" Kakashi asked. "_How_ did you get here?"

Gaara finally sat down at the table, the Hokage to his left and Kakashi to his right.

"I came to bring you back," Gaara told them. "It's a long story."

Kakashi and Sarutobi glanced at each other again, their curiosity only growing with the short and vague answers.

"We've got the time," Kakashi said.

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_**Next chapter will be a glimpse about what's happening in the future. Hope you guys liked the update even though it's a bit shorter than the last two.**_

_**And on another note, all the editing is finally over. I've corrected all my grammar crimes and I've also updated the story according to all the new crap that's happening in the manga right now. Damn you, Kishimoto! You couldn't have come out with this earlier? This is going to screw up so many fanfictions...**_

_**Oh, and for others that are interested in great naruto time travel fics, I recommend 'It's For a Good Cause, I Swear!' by Sarah1281, if you haven't read it already. I just reread it and laughed my ass off. Again. A time travel comedy at its finest :D**_


	26. Of the Future

_**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.**_

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_"What are you doing here Gaara?" Kakashi asked. "_How_ did you get here?"_

_Gaara finally sat down at the table, the Hokage to his left and Kakashi to his right._

_"I came to bring you back," Gaara told them. "It's a long story."_

_Kakashi and Sarutobi glanced at each other again, their curiosity only growing with the short and vague answers._

_"We've got the time," Kakashi said._

00000000000000

Gaara stared at the two of them and nodded again. He seemed to be taking a moment to gather his thoughts and although they let him do so peacefully, the two were understandably anxious for him to begin.

"I suppose I'll begin by saying that I had been originally been sent to Konoha, in the future, in order to take care of some business concerning Suna, Konoha, and Kumo," Gaara began thoughtfully. "However, for obvious reasons, I can't go into detail."

Sarutobi nodded empathetically, understanding that a great deal of the information that was handled by a Kage could not be spoken of to anyone. Kakashi nodded politely, but he was waiting for Gaara to get to the good parts.

"The Raikage and I were in a meeting with the Hokage," Gaara continued.

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow at the vagueness of the future Kazekage's explanations, but he figured it was understandable. Truth be told, he probably knew more about the future now than any one person had a right to. He could let this slid without a fuss.

"While we were talking..."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What do you mean there hasn't been any progress!" Tsunade yelled as she banged her fist on her desk.

The other two Kage that were seated in the other room perked up in interest to hear such a violent outburst. Gaara was a little startled by the noise, unlike the Raikage who caused more of a commotion while waking up in the morning. However, they both wondered what would make one of the legendary sannin this upset.

"It's already been a week!" Tsunade growled, now ignoring the unfortunate chunin that was cowering before her.

Gaara glanced at the Raikage questioningly. He shrugged at the light inquiry from his peer. Although they were all Kage, Tsunade was also one of the most volatile women he had ever seen. It would be best not agitate her further. Gaara obviously hadn't gotten this memo and he stood and knocked politely on the open door that connected their meeting room to the Hokage's office.

"Tsunade-sama," Gaara called, his gravelly voice tinged with a touch of concern. He was aware that not many things could get her this upset and if she was already at this point of agitation then it had to be something serious.

Tsunade stopped her muttering as she remembered she had guests. She sighed heavily and nodded at the Kazekage.

"I'll be right there," she told him.

Gaara watched her warily, but instead of taking the hint and returning to his seat inside the adjoining room, he opened his mouth to question her further. Tsunade had seen it coming. The Kazekage was a persistent brat at the best of times, even if he was mostly a well meaning one.

"Is something wrong?" Gaara questioned her. Although they both knew what he was really asking. 'Is there something wrong with Naruto?' was the real question.

Tsunade sighed again when she realized what a mess this was. She knew that Gaara was really only asking because of his friend and that if it was something else, he would drop the subject immediately. However, the problem was that it _wasn't_ something else and the Kazekage was spot on in his suspicions. Tsunade looked at the younger shinobi thoughtfully. She knew that Naruto was a good friend of his. In fact, for all she knew Naruto was his _only_ friend. Perhaps he would...?

"Naruto's gone missing," Tsunade said bluntly, her eyes closed as she threaded her fingers together and laid them thoughtfully against her chin.

Gaara froze slightly with shock when he heard this, but he quickly moved out of the doorway, walked up to the desk, and looked down expectantly at the Hokage. Even the Raikage had moved from his seat in the other room and leaned against the wall when he heard that the annoying blonde brat that had befriended his brother had gone missing.

When the chunin began looking anxiously between the three Kage, Tsunade finally dismissed him with a wave of her hand. He left gratefully, nervous to be in the presence of so many powerful shinobi.

"What?" Gaara croaked.

"Team Kakashi was dispatched a few weeks ago on a mission located near grass country," Tsunade told them. "They never made it to their target."

"What do you suspect?" Gaara asked, thinking of all the things that might've gone wrong. How were the Leaf shinobi's relations with the Grass country nowadays?

"Foul play was crossed out immediately," Tsunade said quickly, picking up on what he was implying. "All of their things were left undisturbed at their campsite and there were no signs of a struggle _or_ enemy chakra."

Gaara absorbed this thoughtfully.

"How many people are on Team Kakashi?" the Raikage asked. Gaara and Tsunade were startled for a moment, but then they realized that not every foreign leader was overly familiar with Naruto's team. However, it was quickly becoming an uncommon thing due to Naruto's skill with making friends in high places.

"Team Kakashi consists of Hatake Kakashi, Tenzo, Sai, Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke," Tsunade informed him.

The Raikage let out a little growl at the Uchiha's name, but stayed silent.

"Did you find anything?" Gaara asked her quickly.

Tsunade looked at him gratefully before continuing. It seemed that the Uchiha was still a sore spot with the Fourth Raikage even though, in the end, no harm had come to his brother. Changing the subject would be the wisest course of action.

"That's the weirdest part," Tsunade admitted, sounding a little frustrated. "We found an area that had a high concentration of chakra, but when we had it examined and tested, it was found to be _naturally_ formed energy rather than chakra like we had first believed."

"Natural?" Gaara asked thoughtfully, his brow furrowed in thought. Where had he heard of something like this before...?

"Yes," Tsunade said. "And another thing... apparently those that examined the area also reported a... general feeling of uneasiness. Normally I wouldn't pay that close attention to such things, but even our most experienced commented on this."

"What did they mean by uneasy?" the Raikage questioned, no longer apathetic to the whole ordeal, but instead was mildly intrigued. "They felt threatened?"

"No," Tsunade said as she rubbed at the back of her neck staring at one of the reports in front of her. She picked one up and skimmed the words on the page.

"This one says that he felt _drawn_ to one area in particular. Others have also reported something along those lines and when further analyzation was completed, they found traces of the entire teams chakras centered in that one area," Tsunade said, throwing the report back onto her desk in disgust. She really needed a drink.

"What do you think it is?" the Raikage asked.

"At this point," Tsunade sighed again, sounding tired and worried. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"I think..." Gaara began, the two others looked at him sharply. Gaara had been silent for some time and they were wondering what he was thinking of that he would be so distracted by it.

"I've heard of something similar," Gaara admitted. "There are records of something like this in the Suna archives."

"There is?" Tsunade asked incredulously, eyes wide. Gaara nodded in response.

"From what I understand, it happened long ago, around the time when both Suna and Konoha were created," Gaara told them. "I remember reading about experiments the Third Kazekage had conducted on the subject, but he had never been able to test his ideas before he... disappeared."

Gaara looked grave as he thought of the Kazekage's actual end. Sakura had taken the time to tell him of the third Kazekage's actual demise and he had been very grateful that the leaf shinobi had taken informed them since the elder Chiyo had not been able to.

"Have you looked at his notes?" Tsunade asked with barely suppressed eagerness.

"I have," Gaara said. "I hadn't thought much of it at the time. From what I can tell, the Kazekage thought that the incident had somehow transported the missing persons to a different location. He took the samples that had been taken and, from what I saw, created some kind of seal that should take the focus of the technique to the point where the others were transported to."

Tsunade and the Raikage stared at him in shock. Tsunade wondered how much free time the Third Kazekage had actually had. She would've never been able to come up with something so ingenious while being bogged down by as much work as she normally had!

"Did he mention how everyone would get back?" Tsunade asked curiously.

"He wrote up another seal that would have a sibling in the original location. I think it would work like a summoning," Gaara told them.

"Well, why don't we try that?" the Raikage asked, arms folded over his chest. "It seems like we have everything that we need. All that's left it to arrange the whole thing."

"It's not that easy," Gaara shook his head. "Even if they did work, the whole operation would need a great deal of chakra to power it. This seemed to have been the Third Kazekage's main problem and I am no longer in possession of as much chakra as I once did."

Gaara looked uncomfortable at this, but ultimately he was simply glad that he was rid of the demon Shukaku and was still able to use his sand.

"The chakra of a jinchuriki would be enough to power the seal?" Tsunade asked and Gaara nodded.

"The Third Kazekage seemed to think so, he expressed as much in his notes."

"Well then what are you waiting for!"

The three kage jolted a little when they heard a heavy thud on the window sill outside of Tsunade's office. Tsunade narrowed her eyes at the intruder, but simply rolled them when she realized who it was.

"Yo, bro!" the obnoxious voice of Killerbee sounded from outside the window. "How does it go?"

"Bee!" the Raikage yelled. "I told you to stop eavesdropping on my meetings!"

Killerbee chuckled and leapt into the room, another dull thud sounding on the Hokage's floor.

"Sorry, but I think that it was a good thing this time," Killerbee said as he looked at the Kazekage. "I'm offering some help from this master of rhyme."

Gaara blinked at the ridiculous looking jinchuriki in front of him who seemed to be... rhyming?

"I heard that our little buddy is gone, and that it wasn't 'cuz of some wrong. I heard chakra is what you need, and I'ma help ya there indeed!" Killerbee rhymed, smirking and crossing his arms.

"You're... the container for the Eight-tailed Ox, right?" Gaara asked, he wasn't quite sure what to do with this much eccentricity, but he figured he and most of his acquaintances weren't exactly normal, so he could overlook it.

"Yup, little man. And I'ma help wit' yo' plan!" Killerbee said as he gave Gaara a thumbs up and a smile. This was behavior that Gaara was a little more familiar with (besides the rhymes) and he nodded and looked at the Raikage as well as the Hokage, looking for permission.

"Sounds like a good idea," Tsunade said with a grin, looking more light-hearted than she had in a while. The Raikage simply gave an aggravated groan.

"I can't stop him from doing what he wants," the Raikage admitted. "And I'll let you supply the chakra, but you're not going!"

"But bro-!" Killerbee began, looking a little upset.

"No!" the Raikage insisted.

"But when they come back-"

"They'll have the nine-tails container to supply the chakra," the Raikage dismissed his argument.

Killerbee deflated a little, knowing that he couldn't argue too much. Even his brother had a limit and he seemed to have become a little more overprotective since he had split and taken a small vacation a couple of years ago.

"I'll go," Gaara said, shocking the others.

"Are you sure?" Tsunade asked cautiously. "As a Kage, it would be a little reckless to put your life on the line needlessly."

"I have faith in the Third Kazekage's plans," Gaara said solemnly. "And I owe Naruto my life, and I owe Sakura the life of my brother. This would be a small price to pay if I could help them."

"Very well," Tsunade said, realizing that she wouldn't be able to convince him that this wasn't a good idea. Besides, he was sure to get an earful from his siblings when they caught wind of what they were planning. Although she was sure he would be able to convince them that this was what he wanted to do, but they probably wouldn't go down without a fight.

"Please send word to Suna as quickly as possible then, Kazekage-sama," Tsunade told him. "We'll provide with anything that you need."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"After that I sent a message to one of my advisors and we received everything that we needed within a few days," Gaara told the stunned looking ninja. "It was easy enough to set up and use, we didn't have any troubles."

At this, Gaara seemed to have finished, although he was a little uncomfortable with the wide-eyed stares he was getting from the other two.

"What happened after you got here?" Kakashi asked.

"When I realized where _and_ when I was, I decided it was best to make my way to Sand, since I wouldn't exactly be welcome in the village without any proper documentation," Gaara explained. "I was able to make my way to the Third Kazekage easily enough and when I showed him my copies of his work and other evidence, he was eager enough to help as long as I gave him enough information about the successful experiment."

"You... simply _made your way_ to the Third Kazekage?" Sarutobi asked, disbelief coloring his tone. Never mind that he had managed to bypass Konoha security so easily.

"Yes," Gaara said. Sarutobi got the impression that if the young man had been in the possession of eyebrows, one would have been carefully arched at him in that moment.

"But how?" Sarutobi pressed, ever eager for knowledge.

"Although it is the past, I am very familiar with my village," Gaara said. "And once I met with the Kazekage it was easy enough to convince him that I was a shinobi of the Sand, regardless of the time period."

Kakashi thought of the sand manipulation that was unique only to those possessed by Suna's jinchuriki and had no problems believing that Gaara was able to convince the Third Kazekage of who he was. Being presented with a working example of his own ideas had probably erased any doubts he might have had.

"I'm glad you're here, Gaara," Kakashi told the younger man sincerely. "We _have_ had a hard and it's a relief now that you've come to help us."

He gave Kakashi a brief smile and a nod.

"We should leave as soon as possible," Gaara told them. "However, I was allowed to come here by supervising one of the teams from Suna. If they make it past the second exam, I'll be obligated to see them through it."

Kakashi nodded and hummed thoughtfully.

"I understand, I think the others would like to see this through as well. We've also made some... interesting friends during our stay. I'm sure the others would like some time to... prepare," Kakashi told him, wincing slightly as he thought of Sasuke, Naruto, and the families they would have to leave behind.

"In the meantime, I'm sure Naruto and the others will be surprised to see you when the second exam ends," Kakashi said, trying to lighten the mood a little.

Gaara gave him another smile, one that was a little lighter this time, and moved to get up.

"I look forward to it."

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_**Bwah, that was a little complicated... I hope you liked the chapter. Please excuse my terrible rapping skills. Damn you, Killerbee, you pain in my ass... although seeing Naruto rap was possibly the funniest thing EVER. **_

_**Oh, and I think I'll go more into Gaara's trip into the past in the next chapter. I didn't want to make this chapter too long, but I'll devote a little side story to it next week. Although if you want me to just move right along with the story, let me know. **_

_**So tell me what you thought of this chapter! I'm not quite sure about how it turned out, so let me know what you think! **_


	27. Well, It Had to End Eventually

**Time Unravels**

**Chapter 27: Well, It Had to End Eventually...The Second Exam, I mean.**

* * *

Naruto grinned as he and his team easily made it to the tower in the middle of the forest. Unlike the last time they'd taken this test, it'd only taken them half of the day.

"This is so awesome!" Naruto shouted when they'd finally finished speaking with the chunin instructor (Naruto was kind of sad that it wasn't Iruka this time around, he'd kind of enjoyed that). "We're the first ones here! Now all we have to do is rest up and see who else comes in!"

"Yeah," Sakura commented, looking around curiously at the absence of people while tucking a stray strand of pink hair behind her ear. "I hope Obito and Rin make it here okay..."

Sasuke, who had been looking off into the distance with his arms crossed, raised an eyebrow at Sakura.

"What about Sai?"

"What _about_ Sai?" Sakura retorted, unconsciously mimicking Sasuke's position and adding her own scowl to the mix.

"I'm sure they'll be okay," Naruto assured them. "Hey! Let's go see where we'll be staying for the next couple of days! I want to see if we can get something to eat! Maybe they'll even have ramen!"

"Ugh, Naruto, don't you ever think about anything other than food?" Sakura complained. "We only just ate a few hours ago!"

"Yeah, but Sakura, that was _hours_ ago," Naruto shot back with one of his cheeky grins.

"I'm hungry," Sasuke said, and he started walking toward the center of the tower.

"All right!"

Naruto pumped his fist and followed after his friend. Sakura just sighed, slumping her shoulders for a moment before she straightened herself out, and followed after the two of them. After all, it wasn't like she had anything better to do.

* * *

Genma grinned as both he and his teammates ambushed another group of genin. They had decided that even though they'd completed their task, they wanted to thin out the competition a little bit. After all, everyone knew that the final task would be the bi-annual chunin tournament, and Genma wanted a challenge.

"Great job, guys," Genma told them. He smirked when he saw that Kotetsu and Izumo were having a victory dance over the unconscious bodies of a team from the Grass village. "Let's bring them to the tower and set up the traps for the next group of suckers."

"No problem boss!" Izumo saluted him- both he and his partner picked up their limp adversaries so they could drag them a few hundred meters closer to the tower for someone to find.

Genma watched them walk off for a few moments before he began dismantling the traps the unfortunate grass genin had walked into just moments before. Once that was done, he began clearing the area of debris.

_'It's probably best we find another place soon,'_ Genma thought to himself as he picked up some leftover kunai and shiruken. _'After all, we don't want anyone to get suspicious. We'll just take out a few more teams and complete our own exam.'_

Genma was a little wary of spending too much time clearing out the competition. They'd continue with their plan for the rest of the day, but once the sun went down, they'd head off. It might have only been the first day, but Genma didn't want to push their luck. After all, surely there had to be a couple of strong ninja during the first day rather than a few amateurs who'd gotten lucky on their first try.

Just as Genma had pulled the last of the projectiles from the trunk of a tree, Genma felt someone heading his way.

"Shit," Genma cursed before climbing up the tree as quickly and silently as he could.

He might have been prepared to knock out a few genin with his team, but he didn't want to go three-to-one if he didn't have to. Genma waited patiently, hiding in the foliage as he strained his hearing. His senses might not have been as sensitive as an Inuzuka's, but he could easily hear the rustling of leaves and the clamor of sandals against tree-limbs.

Genma held his breath when he realized they were in the clearing below him, and he took a chance by glancing through the leaves which were hiding him so that he could get a good look at his new opponents. When he finally laid eyes on the mean looking genin in front of him, his blood ran cold.

It wasn't even that they were physically intimidating. Certainly, the genin who lead them didn't look especially intimidating; he was shorter than even the average twelve year old, and his hair was an unassuming dishwater blonde. Even his features were bland and unremarkable. Perhaps it was because both he and his companions were covered in several layers of drying blood that Genma felt on edge.

The lone kunoichi of the group was scratching at some of the flaking blood on her neck, making a face as she did so. Genma noted that the dried blood blended extraordinarily well with the auburn color of her hair. He barely knew where the blood ended, and it as if she was a blood creature masquerading as a human child.

The last enemy genin was built like a tank. Genma picked up on the small details that singled him out as the meathead who was trained to mindlessly attack so the rest of his team could use him as a distraction in a fight. As a result, he was heavily muscled, enough so that Genma would place him at fifteen rather than twelve or thirteen like the majority of genin participating in the exam.

"We've already wiped out three teams," the blood drenched kunoichi complained as she wiped some rusty flakes out of her ear. "How much longer do you want to do this Akan? It's getting pretty old."

"Yeah, Kuya's right," their tank agreed. He seemed to be less concerend with the blood, dirt, and wounds that covered his body. He was simply leaning against a large broad sword which looked like it had been half-heartedly wiped clean of bodily fluids. "I'm hungry."

"All in due time," Akan finally spoke. He'd been observing the clearing they'd stopped in, taking in their new surroundings with interest; it was inherent in his movements. Genma knew that if this 'Akan' looked closely enough he might decide to hunt down his group, and Genma's only wish right now was for this guy to make the wrong conclusion. "The markings on the trees..."

Genma held his breath as the genin touched the bark of the tree he was hiding in thoughtfully.

'_Please, don't look up here,'_ Genma desperately wished. He held himself completely still. When the three had stopped, he'd slowed his breathing, but now he held it completely. _'Just go away!'_

"They're fresh," Akan whispered to the bark.

Genma felt his entire body break out into an uncomfortable sweat. His muscles contracted and loosened at the same time, and he'd never experienced this kind of gut-wrenching fear before. His thoughts had wiped themselves clear, and Genma found that he couldn't even find the will to hope for his own safety anymore.

"Come on, Akan," Kuya goaded their leader. "Misumi and I don't care about any of the wimpy genin over here. They'll either get themselves killed or we'll kill them in the exam later. I'm tired of flaking."

Akan rubbed the tree for a moment longer, whispering to the bark. For a moment it seemed he was going to ignore his team completely. Suddenly, he stopped whispering, and he looked up, lining his sight up vertically with the trunk. Genma felt his heart stop when he realized the other boy was looking straight at him through the foliage, and for a moment he could see his death. He was certain of it; he could practically taste it. He looked into the eyes of this _kid_, and he could only see the desire to hunt and destroy.

"Akan," the newly identified Misumi's deep voice seemed to boom in the tense silence.

Genma almost released the breath he was holding when Akan looked away from him to set his attention on Misumi.

"Very well," their leader conceded. Genma somehow found it more horrifying that Akan was mentally capable enough to play mind games with him and listen to his teammates at the same time. "We'll finish up this stupid exam. But later..."

Akan turned his head up for a moment, his gaze settling briefly on Genma again, giving him a nasty jolt. But the moment passed as quickly as it came, and soon the three genin were heading off toward the tower together. To Genma, time had taken on a new meaning, and he found himself frozen, barely realizing that he wasn't in danger anymore.

It wasn't until he heard another sound coming toward him that he was startled from his position among the leaves. His heartrate jumped again, but then he heard the spirited bickering of his two teammates. It seemed that the two of them had escaped the notice of the three rock genin by taking to the treetops on their return trip. Genma nearly fell off of his tree branch from the sudden lack of tension in his muscles when he realized it wasn't another group of enemies.

"Boss?" he heard the high-pitched prepubescent voice of Izumo call to him once they dropped down into the clearing. The pair were startled when the haggard figure of their leader landed heavily in front of the tree he'd been hiding in.

"Uh, hey," Kotetsu spoke tentatively. For once, the two of them had picked up on the subtleties of the situation and knew that something had shaken their nigh unflappable team leader. "Are, uh, are you okay?"

"I'll tell you in a moment," Genma huffed as he flopped down on the ground. His hands were gripping the fabric of his pants tightly, his hands still shaking from the leftover adrenaline, and Genma rested the top of his head on his kneecaps in an effort to calm himself down and to save face in front of his minions. After all, he was sure that anyone who saw his face in that moment would realize just how deeply the last few moments had affected him.

* * *

Meanwhile, a few kilometers away from Team Genma was an unassuming Sand team that just happened to be the genin team of one red-headed time traveller. The youngest member of the team, a young brown-haired boy named Hadaro, grinned as he bitch slapped an enemy into unconsciousness.

"Hey, hey!" Hadaro yelled at his teammates. "What do you think? Gaara-sensei'd be pretty proud, right? We're owning this thing!"

"Whatever," said the female of the team, a young woman named Fumi. Her light brown hair was mostly covered by a red head scarf, but she took the time to meticulously tuck some of the stray hair by her ears back into place.

Hadaro wiped his nose with the extra long sleeves of his dark gray tunic, but after he noticed the snot on his sleeve he tried to wipe it off on his black canvas shorts. He avoided getting any of the snot on the mesh that poked out underneath them though. He knew from experience that it was really hard to get it out. After he was done with that (his other two teammates looking on in passive disgust at their teammate's behavior), he pushed the glasses on his face back up to the bridge of his nose with a glove covered hand.

"Oh, c'mon," Hadaro wheedled. "Don't you care what Gaara-sensei thinks? I mean, he's so stoic and cool and-"

"Yeah, I _know,_" Fumi scoffed, turning her head away from him as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You only go on about it _all the time_."

"You're just jealous," he shot back. "I mean, Gaara-sensei's awesome, but you're just frumpy."

A vein bulged in the middle of Fumi's forehead. Her family back in Suna were always preaching that shinobi should always be practical in everything they did. As a result, Fumi was forced to where shapeless tan colored tunics, shorts, and sandals. It was only when she wasn't in the village that she could add a splash of color with her bandana.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!"

"Ow!"

The last team member, Kazuo, sighed from the sidelines as he sat back and let his livelier teammates go at it. This sand genin had dark blonde hair held back by a dark blue bandana (he was used to lending Fumi one whenever she managed to escape her family's clutches). His slightly older and muscled teenage form was clothed by a dark brown vest and a dark mesh t-shirt underneath that. Lastly, he was wearing long, brown canvas pants that tucked into tall, black boots.

"Are you guys done yet?" he asked once he felt Fumi had taken out enough of her ire on their youngest and (arguably) the most immature genin in the entire village of Suna.

"Yeah, just about," Fumi huffed, giving Hadaro one last punch on the head.

"Agh! Bitch, stop doing that!"

"Why I outta-"

"Hey, cut it out," Kazuo said sternly, getting up from his seat on a fallen tree. "Let's get going. It's already the second day of the exam, and I don't want to hang around much longer."

"Fine," Fumi relented, releasing the grip she'd had on Hadaro's collar. She then wiped her hands off on her tunic. "I shouldn't get my hands dirty anyway."

"Whatever," Hadaro mumbled as he rubbed his swelling cheel with his dried-snot covered sleeve.

"But you think Gaara-sensei's cool, don't you Kazu?" Hadaro looked up at his leader with wide, tear-sparkling eyes, his bottom lip threatening to develop into a full blown pout. Kazuo felt his own forehead begin to throb, and he sighed yet again, but this time in defeat. It wasn't worth the effort to ignore him.

"Yeah, he's okay," Kazuo admitted. "He's a little weird, and he's really young, but I like him just fine."

"He's _really_ weird, that's what he is," Fumi mumbled under her breath.

"What was that!" Hadaro yelled.

"Well, it's true!" Fumi shouted back. Kazuo gave up on ever having any peace during this exam. "He's _too_ young to be all serious and grumpy, and if that wasn't bad enough, he has no eye-brows! I don't know why Kazekage-sama stuck us with him after Hiraki-sensei broke both of his legs during our last mission."

"He's a good shinobi," Kazuo said, silencing the two of his teammates. Hadaro was smug that he'd won their argument by Kazuo's admission, and Fumi knew that despite her misgivings, Kazuo was correct. "...and he's a good teacher."

"Now, I don't know about _that_," Fumi scoffed.

"You're just jealous because Gaara-sensei said he couldn't show you how he controlled his sand!"

"Shut up!"

Kazuo decided he'd just wait a little while longer before he would interrupt them again. After all, it _was_ only the second day...

* * *

"Aw, man," Obito huffed as he and the rest of his team climbed yet another tree in hopes of ambushing some unsuspecting genin. "How much longer do we have to do this?"

"Quiet, Obito," Rin whispered. "As long as we have to."

Sai, as usual, didn't say anything and depended on Rin to keep their unruly teammate in check. It was already the third day, and they still hadn't gotten the right scroll. Yesterday they had managed to find a weak enough team, but unfortunately they'd been carrying the wrong scroll.

Rin was sure that Sai was slowing himself down for the two of them, and she had to admit that she was grateful despite feeling a little ashamed. She'd known for a while that Sai was way above the level of genin, as were Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, but she couldn't help but feel like she could have been doing better.

It was in this moment that Sai held a hand up, a silent warning for them to not make any sudden movements. He leaned forward, almost imperceptibly, and focused on the clearing in front of him. Sure enough, a tired group of young genin had stumbled into their web. Sai flicked his hand toward Obito.

Obito tugged on the bit of string in his hand, and the trap had been sprung.

'_Oh, yeah,_' Obito thought, his wicked grin growing by the second. _'This is the one. Next stop, the tower!'_

Luckily, the three of them had chosen the right team to ambush this time around. They'd even managed to swipe an extra scroll.

"Why are we taking this with us?" Obito asked their de facto leader, Sai. Obito squinted at the older boy as he scratched his own stomach a little.

"Because it cuts out some of the competition if there are less scrolls floating around," Sai said as he tucked the extra scroll he'd been holding in his back pocket, just in case something happened to any of their other scrolls. "Now let's move it. Now that we've completed our mission, we shouldn't linger any longer than we have to."

"Right," Rin nodded.

"I dunno," Obito mumbled to himself as they took to the trees again. Although this time it was to travel. "Seems kind of mean to me..."

"That's because you're a terrible ninja, dickless," Sai said. He turned his head back slightly and gave Obito one of his creepy grins.

"Why I outta-" Obito growled, but he knew better than to make a fuss. "Whatever."

After all, they'd be seeing Naruto's team soon, and they'd put creepy Sai in his place.

* * *

It was the last day and they were going to be late! Asuma cursed under his breath as both he and his team sprinted toward the tower. It was almost sunset, and he honestly didn't know if they were going to make it.

After Naruto's team had defeated them, _and_ relieved them of their scroll, Asuma and his team had had nothing but bad luck. It was as if the forces of the universe had aligned to make their lives a living hell. Every team that they had encountered after the first day was either too strong to confront, or once they'd defeated them, it turned out they were carrying the wrong scroll.

"C'mon, c'mon!" Asuma growled, trying to force his muscles to work harder.

All of them were exhausted, and they were nowhere near their usual speed. Asuma was sure that if it had been the first day of the exam, they'd have already made it to the doors with time to spare. As it was, even Gai was having difficulties keeping a fast pace. After all, they'd had next to no sleep, barely any food, and Asuma had a cut on his foot that wouldn't stop bothering him. He was pretty sure Gai had some broken ribs from his encounter with the pink-haired demon (although Gai would never admit it), and Kurenai seemed to be suffering from some lingering psychological effects from her encounter with the Uchiha.

_'Just a little closer!'_

Asuma felt his heart leap into his throat as he caught sight of the tower entrance. The three of them managed to gather the last of their energy and sprint the last few meters to the waiting chunin.

The three of them landed right next to the entrance, all of them doubled over panting.

"Did we- did we make it?" Asuma coughed, looking at the frowning chunin.

"Sorry, guys," the chunin began, but Asuma already knew that he didn't want to hear the words that came next. "But we closed the doors just a few minutes ago. I'm just here to pick up any of the stray genin that made it late before going through the forest to search for the rest."

"No!" Gai shouted, pounding a fist on the wooden floor beneath him. "This is unacceptable! Now I must run 1300 laps around Konoha, and if I cannot do that, I must complete 2000 sit-ups!"

"Shut up, Gai," Asuma wheezed.

Asuma had bigger problems. After all the bragging he'd done before the exam, he'd never be able to face his old man again!

* * *

"Congratulations to all of you," the Third Hokage addressed the small crowd of genin in front of him. "You have completed the second task."

The eighteen genin that had made it through the second task stood in rigidly straight lines in front of the Hokage; their teachers and the proctors of the Exam were all standing behind him. It was a momentous time, all of them were well on their way to becoming chunin. Unfortunately, Naruto could never help acting like a bit of an idiot.

"Is that Gaara?" Naruto whispered. Unfortunately, Naruto's whisper was roughly the equivalent to most people's indoor speaking voice.

"Shut it, bonehead!" Sakura furiously whispered back while threatening him with one of her fists.

"I can't tell from here," Sasuke said under his breath. "The Hokage's in the way, but it _does_ look a lot like him from what I can see. Maybe it's his dad?"

"He's standing next to Kakashi-sensei," Sakura whispered. "We can ask him later. Now shut up."

"Unfortunately," Sarutobi continued, ignoring the quiet conversation going on between the team to the far right of the room. "If all of you insist on participating in the third exam, we must have a preliminary match right now. However, if at least four of you drop out, you will all have a month until you must fight again. Thereby giving you a month to rest, heal, and train. Is there anyone who does not feel up to the task?"

There was a tense silent among the crowd. Some of them couldn't believe that they were being forced to make this kind of decision. Fight while exhausted and lose? Or give up now and lose?

Fortunately for some of the genin, several of their peers raised their hands.

"Izumo, Kotetsu?" Genma whispered at his teammates furiously. "What the hell?"

Genma didn't really want to admit it, but he had grown fond of the two goofballs during their time in the forest.

"Sorry, boss," Izumo whispered back, his hand straight in the air along side Kotetsu's. "We realized that the two of us work better as a team, and if we're forced to fight alone right now, we'll more than definitely lose."

"Yeah," Kotetsu agreed. "But we got you here, didn't we? Give 'em hell, boss!"

Genma swallowed, and nodded slowly. What they'd said had made sense, and if he was being honest, he was more than a little touched by their confidence in him. He only hoped that he wouldn't have to fight any of the rock genin he'd encountered...

"I understand."

* * *

"Inoichi, Chouza," Skikaku said as he put his hands on the shoulders of his two best friends. They smiled weakly at him and raised their hands to back out of the tournament. Unfortunately, during their exam, Chouza had cracked several ribs, and Shikaku was pretty sure that Inoichi had cracked part of his skull after one desperate genin had figured out how to stop the Yamanaka family technique. If it wasn't for the threat of a preliminary fight...

"Don't worry about us, Shika," Chouza said with a reassuring grin. "I know that you'll do your best."

"Right," Inoichi said.

Shikaku breathed a heavy sigh. It seemed everything was left to him now... what a _drag_...

* * *

"Very good," the Third Hokage nodded at the remaining contestants. "Now, for the remaining fourteen, all of you will come up here and pick out a number."

Sarutobi gestured toward Tenzo who was rattling a small box filled with paper in front of him.

"Once everyone has picked out a number, we'll let you know who you'll be fighting in the tournament. Now, everyone line up!"

The teams of genin dragged themselves over to form a line, some of them excited, some of them filled with dread. However, it seemed like almost no time had passed before Tenzo had written down everyone's number. He then passed the box off to one of the assisting chunin, and coughed to get the group's attention.

"Okay," Tenzo began. "The order of the tournament is as follows:

1- Naruto of the Leaf village is fighting 2-Kuya of the Rock village.

3- Shikaku of the Leaf village is fighting 4-Sakura of the Leaf village.

5- Akan of the Rock village is fighting 6- Genma of the Leaf village.

7- Misumi of the Rock village is fighting 8- Rin of the Leaf village.

9- Obito of the Leaf village is fighting 10-Fumi of the Sand village.

11- Hadaro of the Sand village is fighting 12- Sasuke of the Leaf Village.

And finally, 13- Sai of the Leaf village is fighting 14- Kazuo of the Sand village. "

"You will be given more information about the tournament when you show up in one month," the Third Hokage continued after Tenzo had finished.

"Until then, use this time wisely and prepare. Any fighting between participants before the tournament will lead to your disqualification. Good luck!"


End file.
